Afraid of the Dark
by Bam-There You Go
Summary: AU. Sasuke loses his eyesight in a turn of unfriendly events. He is forced to relearn how to live his life and deal with no longer being able to be a ninja. His nightmares and dependence haunt him as he struggles to come to terms with the new obstacle before him. blind!Sasuke. possible SasuSaku
1. The Hunter Becomes the Hunted

**A/N:** I've started another Naruto story o.O I'm insane. I like this one…it allows me to be much more gruesome, bloody and angst-y than I am allowed to be in _Shinyuu_, although I like that one just as much. This first chapter will probably pretty graphic (be weary if you have a weak stomach). There will be lots of blood, descriptions, carnage, and pain. _BUT_, this first chapter is absolutely _vital_ to understanding the rest of the story, so I wouldn't miss it if you can manage. So, here's the first chapter – do try and keep up.

**Disclaimer:** All characters – and some dialogue – mentioned in this story are the rightful property of their owners, namely Masashi Kishimoto and affiliated groups. Copyrights, civil rights, trademarks, company names, Christian names, James names and rights of ownership are respected. Most major credit cards accepted as well. Any liabilities of economic, moral, physic, psychic, para-psychic, paternal, maternal or every other nature is NOT my responsibility, so don't say you weren't warned.

**Warning!:** Story takes off at manga chapter 365. If you've not read that far you're in for some _major_ spoilers and it may take you a bit to get a hold on what's happening in the first few chapters. Also, there's a fair share of blood, gore, vivid details, violence, and a bit of mild language throughout the entire story – just in case you'd like to know.

**Afraid of the Dark**  
_The Hunter Becomes the Hunted_

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Naruto raced through the forest, his cloak flapping everywhere as he jumped from branch to branch. He was so close – so close to finding Sasuke again that he felt like he could simply reach out and tug on his friends shoulder, say hello, and then head back to Konoha together. So close, he could see the small frown that always occupied Sasuke's face and the involuntary twitch of the left side of his mouth when he found something humorous. So close, he barely sensed the hidden chakra signature – _"Wait, what?!"_

Naruto silently descended from the high tree branches, running across the ground, before stopping with his back against a tree. He peered around the massive trunk, listening, watching, probing with his own chakra. His eyes involuntarily squinted as he saw a shadowed figure standing in between a cluster of trees a few yards away. He inwardly gasped, not daring to make a sound, when he made out the red eyes staring back at him. _"Sasuke!"_

The figure emerged slowly from his cover into the small plot of grass devoid of trees.

Naruto's eyes widened as a nervous sweat began to form on his brow. _"Uchiha…Itachi…" _His hand hovered towards his kunai holster and silently slid in, fingering one of the handles. He took a step back, hiding himself further behind the tree.

"Show yourself, Uzumaki Naruto…"

Naruto stepped from behind the tree, body completely on guard and ready to attack. He couldn't help but let his hatred and malice towards the man in front of him be portrayed through his voice, "Finally going to try and capture me?"

The silence that ensued reminded Naruto so much of Sasuke.

Two of Naruto's clones jumped suddenly out from their hiding place somewhere behind Itachi, weapons in hand, as if everything had been practiced.

It barely took a flick of the wrist and Itachi had impaled and effectively dispatched the clones.

"_I've got no chance if it's just one-on-one, but if there's more than one person, you attack from behind."_

"I see you've learned a little bit about fighting the sharingan. You must know what to do when fighting alone…but then, why aren't you running?" Itachi ask in a monotone, not even bothering to bat and eyelash.

Naruto managed to make himself calm down enough to throw his head back and laugh a few times out loud, "Because when you're fighting me, there could be anywhere from one to one thousand opponents. Besides," he continued, growing suddenly somber, "I can't afford to run this time. Sasuke is searching for you, so by capturing you I'll find Sasuke!"

Itachi stared blankly for several minutes and Naruto dared not interrupt the silence.

"What is it about my little brother that makes you care for him so much? He is a rogue ninja who abandoned you and your village."

Naruto's serious face spoke volumes in and of itself, "Sasuke is like a brother to me and I'm a better one than you ever were!"

For a moment, in the most miniscule of seconds, if Naruto had not been so distracted by formulating a plan to fight, he could have seen a small ripple in Itachi's facial muscles, the evidence of the rarest creatures among the Uchiha people: a smile.

Naruto growled and burst forward with the aid of chakra, flying towards Itachi.

Itachi's cloak began disintegrating, separating into a flock of ravens.

"Shit!" Naruto cursed, coming to a halt.

"I don't have time to play with you, Uzumaki Naruto, I need your help."

The ravens came soaring down towards him, circling him, and stilling his movement. He could only see black, with the occasional flicker of light that shone through the breaks in feathers. Soon even that disappeared. His mind began to grow hazy and his thoughts ceased to make sense to him until at last he drifted into unconsciousness.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

A rush of memories flooded his brain as a clone was dispersed by Sasuke, "I found him!"

His team shot surprised looks at him at the sudden outburst and the news.

"Which way?" Kiba asked.

Naruto jumped from the branch he landed on and veered sharply left, "This way – follow me!" _"You're not running away from me this time, Sasuke you bastard."_

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"I'll take your eyes slowly, foolish little brother…" Itachi's eyes suddenly grew wide and his hand clenched the fabric above his chest. He abruptly lurched forward, covering his mouth as he hacked up large amounts of his own blood.

Sasuke stood still, using the time to catch his breath and work out his next plan.

Itachi slowly brought his hand away from his mouth, staring at it as if it were alien to his body. He looked up, letting his bloodied hand fall to his side.

Itachi's sasanoo roared in the silence.

A tagged kunai rip through the air at the beast. Right as the kunai came in contact with the technique, the tag exploded. Sasuke watched with contained horror as the smoke cleared and the beast was left undamaged but with a sore temper. He dropped to his knees, cradling his head in his hands when a force inside him pushed and shoved outward, demanding to be given power and free reign. Snakes emerged and sped towards Itachi.

Itachi stood unmoved, even when the huge snakes were mere feet away from swallowing him whole. His sasanoo beheaded each of the snakes and thrust his sword through Orochimaru's emerged body. He smirked, if only to anger his younger brother, "Surely, little Sasuke, you've got something better to fight me with."

Itachi coughed more, nearly doubling over at the effort and barely had the energy to look up, "Your eyes belong to me now, foolish little brother. I'll take them slowly…I want to savor this and hear your scream as the pain overwhelms you and you cry for help." He shuffled forward, willing one leg to step in front of the other.

For a minute Sasuke panicked, taking a step back before he pulled out a scroll, smearing his blood across its surface, and sent a rain of kunai towards Itachi. The sasanoo blocked every move. Sasuke stared wide eyed as he realized he had nothing left to use against his opponent. He was out of chakra and weapons, and both his mind and his body were exhausted.

"My eyes, Sasuke," Itachi called out, his bloody right hand stretched out in a zombie-like fashion as he shuffled ever forward.

Sasuke snarled and drew his katana. "DIE!" he scream, jumping into the air and holding his sword high above his head, ready to thrust it down the moment he was in position. His attack was blocked by Itachi's sasanoo jutsu, spinning his sword off to the side and throwing him back against a stone wall where he slumped to the ground. Itachi was growing closer – ever closer. Sasuke scrambled up to his feet, using the wall to support himself, and tried to take a step back. He was a cornered animal with nowhere to run, but his eyes could not be pried from staring at his deranged older brother whose damaged appearance, blood covered hand, and chin painted in red only served to add to the intimidation. He sucked in a sharp breath of air as Itachi came within touching distance. His eyes followed Itachi's right hand like a magnet, watching clumps of blood and coughed up flesh drip from his palm. Itachi whispered a string of words. He heard them but paid them no attention; they passed through his ear and stored themselves for examination in the afterlife. Sasuke shrank back, flattening himself as much as he could against the stone wall. His lungs refused to work anymore; they had gotten jammed mid-way between taking another breath. His heart made up for the dysfunctional organ, though. Were it not for the hand that was inches away from his eyes now, he would have taken note that it pounded faster and louder than he thought humanly possible. He kept his eyes staring straight ahead now; his mind was in such frenzy that he couldn't will his body to move one way or the other. Two fingers came to rest rudely on his forehead, poking right between his eyes. They held there for a moment, before the arm holding them became slack and the two fingers slid around his nose and down the side of his face. Itachi's body slumped forward – his neck cracking loudly as it hit the wall at an awkward angle – and his body turned due to the impact until he was lying on the ground, face turned skywards.

Sasuke remained standing against the wall, eyes wide. Blood ran down his face where Itachi's hand had touched him. It trickled and slid down his face, tickling his cheek and seeping into his left eye – he didn't take notice the tingling or the slight burning sensation that accompanied it. His organs had yet to return to their normal functioning and his brain was so overloaded that all the nerve signals had become clogged up. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, a place that was hazy and slightly disorienting, though profusely less congested, he realized that he had finally, after a lifetime of preparation and suffering, killed his brother. A smile crept slowly across his mouth. His eyes sought out Itachi's body, verifying that he was indeed dead, before they closed softly and Sasuke fell to the ground in a bought of unconsciousness.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Yamato crouched on the ground on one knee, hands together in a seal as his mokuton jutsu followed their opponent. Beads of sweat formed from pressure and frustration as every time his wood wrapped around the orange-masked ninja, the man would disappear, only to reappear moments later, inches away from where he was last thought to have been.

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed under his breath as he watched the idle battle. Every attack they had thrown as the masked Akatsuki member had been for naught as the man, Tobi, vanished as their attacked were supposed to hit. He brought his hands together quickly, creating two kage bushin and sent them into the fray. They circled Tobi, looking for an opening, an opportunity. Yamato wrapped wood around the man. At the same instant the man reappeared a few feet away. _"There!"_ The clones shouted inside their head simultaneously and they lunged forward with bare hands and grabbed Tobi's arms. The orange-masked ninja had the effrontery to freeze in surprise as the third Naruto came running at him from the front, a vicious ball of compact, swirling chakra in his palm. Tobi disappeared the instant before the ball of blue chakra made contact, and instead the rasengan was thrust into the Naruto-counterparts. Naruto's eyes widened as both clones vanished and Tobi appeared behind him, delivering a swift chop to the back of his head. There was a resounding pop heard through the small clearing and everyone halted in their assault.

"N-Naruto!" Hinata cried out, wondering just what had happened. There had only been three Naruto's total when he made the kage bushin, but all three of them had just disappeared in a cloud of smoke, with no sign of the real Naruto in any direction.

"What the-?!" Kiba barked as he too noticed the same thing when all of Naruto's scent vanished.

Kakashi glanced to Shino who, too, seemed distraught by the sudden disappearance of their comrade. "It seems Naruto has wondered off on his own and left us with a clone."

"Idiot!" Sakura yelled, hitting her own forehead as if it would somehow pound the truth into her head that Naruto would forevermore be nothing but Konoha's number one unpredictable, _idiot_ ninja.

"Hmm, maybe Naruto has more balls that I originally confirmed…" Sai voiced more to himself than to anyone else in a thoughtful posture.

"That cheeky bastard! Who does he think he is going off by himself in search of Sasuke?!" Kiba yelled, his words accompanied by Akamaru's fierce bark.

"I am part of this mission too…I must make up for not being there last time to catch Sasuke." Shino mentioned in monotone, his grudge showing through just a bit.

"We should finish this battle quickly so that we can find Naruto and get back on Sasuke's track." Kakashi commented.

"I will take care of this…" Shino spoke, lifting his hand out. A swarm of bugs flew out of his sleeve and dove towards Tobi.

"Eeew…" Tobi squealed, dancing around as many bugs as he could, hopping from tree branch to tree branch.

The bugs spread out around him. "Swarm," Shino called out softly, activating his secret insect globe technique. His bugs swarmed Tobi, covering the overgrown child with little black bugs from head to toe and sucking out all the man's chakra.

"Yamato!" Kakashi called out.

"Roger!" Yamato confirmed, again sending his mokuton towards Tobi at frightening speeds.

"How are we doing Shino?" Kakashi asked.

"He's still there."

"Hinata?"

"I-I have him i-in my s-sight, sir!" She confirmed.

"How can this be?" Shino questioned.

Hinata's small gasp and quiet words explained everything, "He just – just di-disappeared!"

A few seconds later, the Konoha leaf-nin spotted the slippery orange-masked ninja on top of a high tree branch. "Oh, hey guys!" He yelled excitedly, waving a hand about wildly with unexplained enthusiasm.

Kiba growled and was about to lunge, but Kakashi held him back with a scowl on his face, staring at the tree limb immediately next to their opponent.

"Zuzuzu…" a plant like figure grew from the tree bark, opening slightly so that two eyes could be seen through the two jaw-like sides. The plant – person – _thing_ was obviously not natural, but their opponent acted as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

"Well?" Tobi asked.

"What the hell is that?" Kiba yelled, pointing a finger at the offending.

"In the book Kabuto gave us, it says he is another member of Akatsuki –"

Sakura growled inwardly, "We don't have time to deal with another—" She stopped her speech as his report travel down to their ears.

The plant-like human answered as if none of the other leaf-nin were there "Sasuke won!" The first voice announced brightly. Another voice came from the darker half of the man's body, **"Uchiha Itachi is dead."**

Nearly every member on the leaf team gasped in shock at the news.

"Whoa! Didn't see that one coming!" Tobi exclaimed, applauding the twist.

"**Also…"** the darker voice began, only to be cut of by the more optimistic of his two personas, "Itachi has captured the Kyuubi jinchuriki and had locked him up. Sasuke will be joining him soon."

Sakura was nearly cut in half upon hearing this. Kakashi frowned, as did Yamato, and several of the 'Rookie 9' gasped in shock.

"Na-Naruto…" Hinata faltered, her eyes growing teary.

"Well," Tobi continued, bright as ever and seemingly immune to the depression that suddenly swept over the leaf-nin, "I guess that means my job here is done." He shrugged once and looked down at the Konoha ninja, "Bye guys, I had a real fun time playing! Maybe we could arrange a play date in the near future!" He waved furiously, no doubt with a huge, disgusting grin hidden behind that horrendous orange mask, before he simply disappeared and the plant-like Akatsuki submerged back into the tree.

"Wha – what do we do now, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked breathlessly, still trying to swallow the fact that both of her teammates and friends had been captured.

Kakashi scowled at the place Tobi and the second Akatsuki had been before turning to his group. "I suppose we go back to Konoha to regroup. Naruto's been captured and we have no information concerning his whereabouts."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Naruto blinked his eyes open, groggily looking about the near dark room until his eyes rested on the small crack under the door where light peered through. There were voices outside accompanying the shadows that sometimes blocked out the light from under the door. Keys twisted in the lock and Naruto pulled himself fully from his hazy mind, preparing for anything.

The door opened and a large guard passed through the door, looking down at him for several seconds before he turned to the side and pointed at another set of chains that were bolted to the floor. "Put him over there."

A second guard was carrying a limp body over his shoulder and walked past the first guard.

Naruto stared at the prisoner, wondering who he was –maybe he was another jinchuriki that the Akatsuki were going to remove a biju from. The prisoner's blood-matted black hair shifted and revealed his pale, bloody face and closed eyes. Naruto's eyes widened. He jerked at his chains, trying vainly to free himself. "Sasuke!"

The large guard shot him a glare, "Quiet, Kyuubi, don't wake up our little Uchiha before we get the chance to subdue his chakra."

Naruto growled. Do doubt, if Kyuubi had not been further repress inside of him by the Akatsuki, he would have grown six tails then and there and torn the whole base down. "Why the hell is Sasuke here?! Let him go before I kick all your asses!"

The second guard dropped Sasuke unceremoniously to the stone floor and clamped the shackles around Sasuke's wrists and ankles, making sure he wouldn't get free. He then pulled out a syringe and stabbed it into Sasuke's neck, injecting the full amount into the unconscious Uchiha's system.

"Sasuke, you bastard, wake up and kick their balls! You're pathetic! How can you get captured too! Wake UP!" Naruto roared, struggling with barely contained furry. He could understand why Akatsuki wanted to capture him – he was a jinchuriki, for crying out loud – but Sasuke had _nothing_ to do with Akatsuki at all, except for his older brother who had defected to the group many years ago. But that was insignificant. They couldn't take Sasuke.

Sasuke groaned, a wave of pain from his battle with Itachi washing over him. There was a loud, obnoxious, and annoying voiced that was echoing around him and ringing in his ears, pulling him from his relaxing and blissful state of sleep. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around. There were two guards: the man in front of him was rather short and had a deep scar running across his forehead and down his left cheek. The second one was a giant of a man whose head rose at least a foot higher that the doorway and who looked as if he could rip a man's head off with just a flex of his biceps. The last person in the room was the one yelling and was chained to the floor, as he had found himself to be. The person was in the shadow cast by the larger guard, so he could not make out his features, but that voice he would recognize anywhere.

"Snap out of it! Use your damn sharingan and bust us out of here before the drug spreads through your whole system and shuts down your chakra!" the voice yelled.

The large guard snarled and walked up to Naruto. "I told you to be quiet, you little shit!" He slammed his foot into Naruto's ribs.

Naruto doubled over, eyes wide and breath being forced out of him as a sliver of blood dripped from him mouth. He recovered quickly though, scowling fiercely and tried to use the few inches of slack chain to swing his foot around and knock the man's legs from underneath him. There wasn't quite enough chain and his leg was stopped far before it could touch the guard.

The guard laughed at the attempt and pulled his fist back to deliver a punch. The guard stopped right before he could swing, his expression showing surprise a moment before he collapsed forward to the ground right beside Naruto, a kunai made of paper sticking out of the back of his neck. Naruto snapped his head up to the doorway where two figures stood. One, a man with orange hair and multiple piercings accompanied by blue, multi-ringed eyes. The other was a woman only a few inches shorter, her blue hair decorated with a delicate paper flower. The paper-made kunai pulled itself out of the dead guard's back and separated into little pieces, swimming through the air until they returned to the woman. The orange-haired man spoke commandingly, looking to the remaining guard, "Take your fellow guard and leave."

The man nodded and walked over to his fallen friend, "Of course, Leader."

"Pain…" Naruto breathed out, oddly subdued.

Pain all but ignored Naruto and walked to Sasuke, staring down at him calculatingly. There was a shuffle of chains to his right, but he paid the Kyuubi jinchuriki not a thought.

"What do you want?!" Naruto growled.

Sasuke returned Pain's unfaltering gaze.

The orange-haired ninja crouched down to eye level with the captured Uchiha, reaching his hand out and holding Sasuke's chin.

"Get your filthy hand off Sasuke, you bastard!"

Sasuke tried to shake out of the older man's grasp, but Pain held fast. "Uchiha Madara believes I am a mere pawn in the palm of his greater plan. But his game is not mine; I will not blindly do as he says."

Naruto struggled once more against his bonds even though they cut into his wrists, "What are you talking about?! Madara is dead!"

Pain's eyes narrowed, though he showed no other signs of hearing the blond.

"What does that have to do with me?" Sasuke ground out, furious at Akatsuki for capturing him and at himself for being weak enough to be captured.

"Madara wants you alive – he needs you to fight his war against Konoha. You know something important – something Madara needs – something Itachi told you before he died."

Pain stared into Sasuke's eyes, daring him to stay silent and promising pain if words were not brought forth.

Sasuke, livid, spit suddenly into pains face, "Screw you."

Pain was silent and merely closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Sasuke was staring back at him with taken aback, red eyes, his own face was emotionless and spit-free. "Now, now, Sasuke, there's no need to be hasty. You've just arrived and already you're throwing genjutsu at us." Sasuke snarled as Pain threw his head to the side roughly and stood. "I'm afraid that is going to cost you."

Sasuke glowered and Naruto let loose a string of unmentionable profanities.

"If I see you lay one hand on Sasuke, you're going to wish you were dead after what I do to you!"

Pain walked through the metal door, followed by Konan, signaling to the remaining two guards, "See to it that the jinchuriki loses his eyesight so we won't have a problem should there arise a need for more…_intense_ interrogation."

"Yes, Leader."

Naruto grew still and silent and both he and Sasuke stared in alarm as the guards nodded and smiled, looking to their blond victim like a predator zeroing in on its prey. They stalked forward, one of the two pulling out and twirling a kunai.

"Wh-what?" Naruto stuttered, desperately trying to extricate himself from the shackles in his panic.

"Seems like his bark's worse than his bite." The second guard chuckled as the first held his kunai up to Naruto's throat threateningly.

The blond shivered unconsciously as the dim light from the doorway highlighted a violet liquid that dripped from the weapon and splashed deafeningly to the stone floor.

"I'm not scared of you…" Naruto forced his retort.

Sasuke seemed to snap out of the panic-induced trance he had been in at the words.

The guard holding the kunai broke out in a vicious smile, one that displayed all of his yellowed and chipped teeth, "See this kunai? It's covered in a poison that makes every wound hurt a hell of a lot more than it should. I'm sure getting your eyes slashed through is pretty painful by itself, but this…" he said, holding the kunai closer to Naruto's neck so that it made a small cut that felt as if his entire neck has been cut in half, "…this would be a living hell."

Naruto nervously flashed his eyes towards Sasuke, who looked back with a nervous scowl. "Sasuke won't tell you anything, no matter what you do!" He threatened, stalling for time.

The second guard stepped forward and yanked Naruto's head back by his blond locks, holding his head still.

"Stop…" Sasuke mumbled out, barely audible even in the small, cave-like cell.

The guard brandishing the kunai stepped forward.

"Stop it." He said again, loud enough to be heard.

Naruto struggled against his chains, eyes wide and fearful.

"Stop!" Sasuke shouted, growing louder and more frantic as the kunai was raised to Naruto's eye.

The guard holding Naruto still laughed, "You can thank your friend, Sasuke, for this."

The kunai was pulled back in order to gain more speed and power.

Sasuke yanked against his restraints, "Stop! I –"

The kunai's razor sharp edge flew forward, gleaming with the pain-multiplying poison.

"Take my eyes instead!" Sasuke finally yelled, his words bouncing off the walls around him and his eye shut tightly in case he had not stopped the guards. It wasn't until his voice bounced off the adjacent wall and flew back to him that he realized what he had said.

The kunai had stopped mere centimeters in front of Naruto's clamped shut eyes. "What was that?" The guard gripping the kunai hissed.

Naruto inched open one of his eyes when the pain did not come, still holding his pent up breath.

"I was the one who cast the genjutsu, so take my eyes!" Sasuke shouted quickly before he had the nerve to change his mind.

The two guards glanced at each other, and the guard with the kunai looked back to Sasuke, "Leader instructed us to take the Kyuubi's eyes, but I hate your eyes, the same ones Itachi possessed. Each time he looked at me it felt as if they were piercing and reading into my soul." He drew back his kunai and turned, locking onto his new prey. "Leader won't mind – you won't die, anyways." The guard stalked towards Sasuke without another thought, yanking his head back by his black hair. "Writhe in the pain you've brought upon yourself." The guard slashed at Sasuke eyes without another word.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

A beautiful blue colored bird flew through the rainy sky as quickly as possible, weaving around the larger drops of rain until he came to his favorite tree branch – one that sheltered him sufficiently from the ever present rain. He would have chirped happily upon arriving, but he would not lose his juicy worm by doing so. He took a couple step towards the center of the tree, where he would be even more sheltered from the rain if the wind so happened to blow, and snapped his head back, throwing the worm into the back of his mouth so he could wholly consume it. He gulped twice, just to be sure, and chirped in satisfaction, already turning around and looking to the ground for another meal.

A scream filled the entire forest and city. The voice was raw and filled with a most palpable pain imaginable. It reverberated off the trunks of each tree, shook the small pebbles lining the wet ground, and seemed to still even the rain drops. A flock of birds, including the little blue bird, took off in flight to find a more peaceful location while other animals retreated to the relative safety of their homes. They all knew that sound. Their instincts warned them of the pure, unadulterated pain that dripped from that scream and the one that followed.


	2. Trusting the Enemy

**A/N:** In case you didn't catch it, the disclaimer in the last chapter was a complete joke. Har-har. I know, it was really lame. Now I bet all of you that skipped over it are going to go back and read it. Right? Right?? Although, it's rather likely that if you skipped over the disclaimer, you will also skip over this author's note and miss what I'm saying entirely. –_–

**Warning/Disclaimer:** A fair share of blood, gore, vivid details, violence, and a bit of mild/strong language

**Afraid of the Dark  
**_Trusting the Enemy_

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

The guards left in a hurry afterwards, for whatever reason. But Naruto couldn't care less at the moment. Sasuke was hurt – really hurt. He could barely breathe, or think, or speak, and, even in the near-black room, he could see the blood splattered all over the wall and floor surrounding his friend. He could see, as if a light had been aimed right at the spot, Sasuke's half-lidded eyes teeming with dark crimson blood and flooding down his face and chest until it soaked into his pants and pooled around him on the ground. Sasuke was shivering, head drooped forward with pain, from either the enormous amount of blood loss or the shock his body had begun to enter – likely both. It almost seemed surreal, like a genjutsu, perhaps – _almost_. Sasuke's terrifying screams and the sight of it all could have convinced him on its own. But then there was the smell – so strong and thick through the air that he could practically taste the copper liquid as it pooled in the back of his tongue and clung to the sides of his throat when he swallowed.

Sasuke's mind was a chaotic, nebulous mess. Pain clouded over his thoughts until they made no sense to him and he couldn't remember them even a second later. This pain, he thought, was the worst he'd experienced in his entire life. It didn't even compare to the time Itachi had easily snapped his wrist and trapped him in a tsukuyomi – not even in the same universe – or the time he had become a living pin cushion in the Land of Wave. It even overshot the compiled pain and loneliness he felt when Itachi had slaughtered their clan and left him as the sole survivor. He couldn't even remember what he had done to get him in such a mess. Likely he was fighting an opponent with a hidden strength he hadn't accounted for. Maybe Itachi really had plucked his eyes out – no, he remembered clearly that Itachi had died before he had gotten the chance to steal his eyes. Then how? What had happened to put him through so much pain? "S-Sasuke…?" Came a small, distant voice. He could barely hear it through the thumping of blood in his head, but it sounded familiar – it sounded afraid and worried. He lifted his head, trying vainly to remember what had happened, or even to figure out who was talking to him. Even the small motion made the blood smash through his head like a boulder. "Sasuke…" came the voice a little louder and more worried than the last time. He looked to the voice slowly, Naruto's voice – Naruto was calling him. How did Naruto find him? The last thing he remembered was Itachi.

"W-why did you do it?" Naruto started off softly, stuttering as he forced words out.

Oh, right, he had taken Naruto's punishment. He wasn't fighting an extremely skilled opponent, as he had thought. He merely had a laps of intelligence and had gotten himself blinded. A stupid decision if he ever heard one. Although, he doubted, if time were to rewind and give him a second chance, that he would have done anything differently.

Naruto was so angry – at himself for being a loud-mouthed idiot, at Sasuke for being a loud-mouthed, self-righteous jerk, at _Akatsuki_ for being an overall pain in the ass, and at everything else in the world for being, for the most part, against him! He could barely contain his rage and expressed himself in the only way possible at the moment – yelling. "You didn't have to stop them! They were order to blind me!! Kyuubi could have at least healed me but…but you—" Naruto's voice died out when he saw the smallest of forced smiles appear on his friends face.

"Idiot…" came the barely audible, raspy voice, drowning in half-covered pain. Sasuke found it very difficult to concentrate through the constant agony that erupted from the back of his eyes, muddling into his thoughts. Besides this, on a much smaller scale, his throat sorely hurt to use after the fits of raw screaming he had been through. His voice came out smaller and weaker than he would have liked, but he decided, half-heartedly, that it was all right if Naruto saw him in this weak state, as there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. "…the words…just came out by themselves."

There were shouts and voices heard outside their door before it was opened. Naruto snapped his head towards the visitor and Sasuke lifted his head in the general direction of the sound. He may be willing to let his – arguably – best friend and teammate see him in his feeble state, but he would rather travel to hell and back again before letting a stranger see him suffer. Especially if the stranger were the one to injure him in the first place.

A tall, blue-skinned man entered, his features partially shaded from the lantern hanging in the hallway behind him. He was, of course, wearing his black Akatsuki cloak, although his sword, Samehada, was missing.

"Kisame…" Naruto hissed upon identifying the man, setting his anger upon something more worthy.

He flashed his razor sharp teeth in a cheeky grin before shutting the door with a resounding _clunk_. He scanned over the two boys, his eyes lingering on Sasuke's bloody visage with a strange emotion played over his face.

Naruto watched Kisame stare down at Sasuke a little too long for comfort. He didn't want the fish-man to get any wild ideas and decided to stick up for his friend since Sasuke couldn't fend for himself in his weakened and pain riddled state. "What do you want, fish face?" Naruto growled, trying to seem as threatening as a teen age, imprisoned boy could be.

Kisame smirked defiantly in Naruto's direction before he silently approached Sasuke and bent down in front of him.

Naruto was starting to panic inwardly, but he would not show it. If Kisame were to decide to hurt Sasuke, there was nothing either of them could do to stop him. He twisted his wrists in the cuffs and tried to slip his hands through, the rough metal slicing the back of his hands and his wrists – at least the blood might make his hands slippery enough to slide through. "Get away from Sasuke, you overgrown goldfish! If you lay one hand on him, I'll have no choice but to cut you up and make fish sticks out of you!"

Sasuke stiffened immediately when Kisame let out a quiet string of laughs right in front of him. He had been trying with all his might to track Kisame by listening to his feet and the shuffle of his thick cloak, but the man's footsteps had fallen in step with the pounding of blood that was slowly escaping a weakened body through his eyes, and the friction of cloth was drown out by short, raspy, and uneven breathing through a raw and irritated throat. His thoughts were in little pieces, fragments of longer things he might of said, could have done, but they were too far away to make any resemblance of sense to him. In his right mind, one unbothered by a searing pain that dripped from slashed obsidian sockets, he would have cursed himself for being so careless and weak whilst preparing for whatever the fish man, Kisame, was about to do to him. But now, with a nearly blank mind and partly scared – though he would not admit it, even to himself – he merely pushed his body back further against the rough, rocky wall and tensed his muscles in worried anticipation.

Kisame's laughs did not last long. He soon sobered, looking over Sasuke quietly, noticing his anxiously expectant position. "Relax, Sasuke, I'm on your side now." He said smoothly, with no detectable hint of lying. Kisame's words did nothing to ease Sasuke's vulnerable mind. He was about to tell the blue-skinned man something of the sort when he spoke again, this time setting something on the ground within Sasuke's reach. It clanked lightly as its metal-like surface touched the stone floor. "Here's some food; it's drugged, of course, but the guards would grow suspicious…" He said, leaving the boys to fill in the rest. He walked over to Naruto and handed him a dish as well.

Naruto accepted the small bowl of unidentifiable mush and eyed it speculatively. He – almost gingerly – set the bowl on the ground to his side. "What do you mean you're on our side now?" he questioned cautiously, looking back up to the man.

Kisame sighed, crossing his arms and leaning more on one leg in a casual manner, turning so he could talk to both boys at the same time, "Itachi had a strange way of showing it, but he truly care for you, Sasuke. He rarely talked about you, but he thought about you and always went out of the way to help you."

Sasuke had concentrated twice as much once his brother's name was mentioned. He forced a cold, cynical laugh, "Uchiha Itachi, the man who murdered my clan all those years ago…leaving his little brother all alone, went out of the way…to protect me?" Sasuke couldn't help it. His blood was boiling – what little he still had left, anyways. He couldn't help yelling. His brother was the _cause_ for **_all_** of the pain and strife in his life. If it weren't for his brother, he could be living peacefully with his mother, father, and the brother he remembered from the past in the Uchiha district, with his cousins and aunts and uncles, inside of Konoha with a future of prodigious ninja or proud police force ahead of him. If it wasn't for his brother, not the one who used to train with him, or pick him up from the academy every afternoon, but the one who murdered their parents with a cold expression and left Konoha as a missing nin – "If Itachi thought he was protecting anyone, especially me, he was more delusional and insane than I thought!" – the brother who left him to grow up all alone, with no one to share experiences, good or bad, no one to comfort him and wrap his injuries when he returned from a taxing mission, no one to tell him good morning in a singsong voice when he rose at dawn or whisper goodnight and listen to the cricket's melody with him as he drifted to sleep. There was no one, except in his dreams every night, where they died over and over and over again.

Naruto watched his friend as the buried storm of emotions tried to emerge. He knew it was hard for Sasuke to talk about the Itachi and massacre, and it always uncovered unwanted memories. He wanted to comfort his friend, but knew if he said anything he could just make the situation worse. He decided to keep his mouth shut for the moment – contrary to popular belief, he knew how to and could keep quiet for extended periods of time if he had to.

Kisame replied easily, not affected in the least with Sasuke's quickly deteriorating composure, "With every decision he ever made, he had you in mind. He was always planning ten steps ahead to make sure nothing would harm you – I would know too. I'm the one who had to put up with doing things the long and hard way to save you."

"Itachi did nothing in his entire, fucking excuse for a life but try to make my life a living hell!" Sasuke screamed, visibly shaking from the overflowing emotion.

Naruto knew – like a best friend knows, like a brother knows – that the current conversation was headed down a dark path that would spiral out of control. He didn't want Sasuke to strain himself with such raw emotions. Naruto knew what Sasuke was feeling – he knew what it was like to hide your emotions, to bottle feelings and memories away and throw it into the ocean of your mind to drift away to a long forgotten island – he knew that doing so would only make the explosion bigger the longer he held it in. This was just a crack in the surface compared to everything buried inside. Now was definitely not the time to implode. It could not only cause Sasuke to mentally break, but his physical condition would most likely deteriorate dramatically. _Now_, was the time to finally speak up. "What, _exactly_, do you want, fish face?"

Kisame was silent for several moments, watching the youngest Uchiha slowly calm down, head now weakly hanging low in exhaustion. He turned his head to face Naruto, but still spoke to both boys. "Itachi made me promise that, if he ever died, I would keep on protecting Sasuke from Pain, Madara, and other figures I won't reveal at the moment. Long story short," he said with a huff, "I'm going to bust you out. The safest place for Sasuke right now is Konoha, but in his current state he wouldn't make it ten feet from this cell without being captured."

Naruto started to interrupt but was stopped with a hard knock to the head.

"Don't talk; I have to leave soon so no one will start getting suspicious." Kisame crouched down next to Naruto and leaned in, talking in a near whisper and glancing warily at the door. "There will be another set of guards coming in here in a couple of hours to take your food tray and make sure you're drugged up. At that time, you guys can use this key to unlock yourself and fight off the guards. I'll clear a path for you to escape, but you'll have to hurry – I can probably only keep it clear for five minutes max." He stopped to listen to the guards shuffling outside the door and glanced over to Sasuke, several feet away, "D'you hear all that, Uchiha?"

Sasuke frowned but otherwise did not answer.

Kisame shook his head with a half-annoyed, half-amused expression, turning back to Naruto. He reached into a pocket on the inside of his cloak and pulled out a key, placing it in Naruto's hand. "Make sure your ready."

Naruto nodded hesitantly as he watched the blue-skinned man stand and leave, locking the door behind him. He waited several minutes, and then looked to Sasuke who held a strong glower on his face even though it must have hurt to do so, head still hanging down. "Do you think we should trust him?" Naruto asked softly, seriously.

Sasuke scoffed, "Of course not; he was Itachi's teammate. I wouldn't put it past my brother to torment me even long after he's died."

"I…" Naruto started, lowering his head and thinking hard on everything that had happened the past couple of days, "I think we should believe Kisame…for now."

Sasuke shifted his head as if he were thinking over the proposition.

"It's not like we have anything to lose. At best, we escape and get back to Konoha. Worst case scenario we get a few scratched and get locked up again. I think we should at least give it a shot."

Silence resounded through the room. Naruto's argument was a good one, if overly optimistic. "Fine…we can try, even though it's obviously a trap of some sort." But for the life of him, he could think of a reason why Itachi would break him out of jail just to have him locked back up. "But I won't return to Konoha with you."

"What? But Sasuke –"

"I'm a deserter there; nothing awaits me but punishment. I won't escape from one prison only to be admitted to another." Sasuke said, his voice growing softer and lighter now that his surge of emotions had passed.

Naruto dropped the subject with a sigh. He wouldn't change Sasuke's mind now, but the Uchiha _would_ come back to Konoha. As far as he was concerned, the Uchiha didn't have a choice. When the time came, he would make Sasuke come, by force if necessary (although a part of him, one he admittedly dismissed, thought it wrong to fight a recently blinded and injured man). He dismissed his thoughts for now, turning to his more current dilemma. "If only I could reach the stupid keyhole!" he growled, trying in vain to reach the key to locks on both his wrists and feet. The short chains limited his movement, preventing him from throwing punches, kicking, or making hand signs. Therefore, the key was several inches too short to reach any lock. He was at if for at least twenty minutes, straining and stretching his limbs and much as he could before he had an epiphany. He smiled as his _brilliant_ idea, sticking the key in his mouth and biting down on it firmly. He lifted a hind to his face and maneuvered the key into the keyhole, unlocking it with a bit of uncomfortable twisting and a sharp _click_. "Ah-ha!" Naruto shouted in delight. Obviously, if they were going to eat, they had to be able to reach their mouths with their food.

"Idiot," Sasuke scolded softly, "keep your voice down."

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

A guard opened the heavy metal door loudly, throwing it open so it swung and crashed into the stone wall. Sasuke, who had dozed off some time ago, jerked awake in shock and tried to reign in his hazy mind and focus in on his surroundings.

Naruto stared back at the guard with as hateful of a glare as the one he was receiving. The guard dropped his gaze to the untouched plate of food at Naruto's feet and growled. He turned slightly, yelling back to his companions that stood in the hall, "Bring two injections – neither of these damn brats ate any food!" A few minutes later, two more guards entered the cell, each holding a large syringe. The guards holding the shots each stalked towards one of the boys. Naruto growled ferally, as he watched one of the guards approach an unaware Sasuke, not bothered by the one that was approaching him. He could easily handle the guards, even with Kyuubi's chakra sealed away and his chakra just starting to come back. But Sasuke, although no doubt would be able to fight well even without sight, was critically injured and had lost an enormous amount of blood. In his current state, he wouldn't be able to protect himself from an attack and probably had a hard time just staying conscious. Naruto held back though, tensely waiting, for good or not, until the last second and prayed silently to whatever god that things would turn out all right.

Sasuke fuddled with his heavy mind, struggling to identify his surroundings while trying to fight away unconsciousness and the throbbing behind his eyes, which burned up to high heavens – even more so than when he had initially been injured. He gasped in surprise when a hand none to gently grabbed his head. He had barely registered that someone had approached him when a syringe was jammed roughly into the side of his neck. Immediately, he felt a cool liquid flow from the needle into his blood stream, sending a shiver across his skin as it moved and mixed into his system. He could already feel the liquid starting to eat away at his chakra supply, leaving him feeling weaker and weaker by the second, and knew that within a few minutes he would have no more chakra than what he needed to stay alive.

Naruto knew that they were going to have a tough time with Sasuke's chakra subdued, but he couldn't just give up their one and only advantage and opportunity at breaking out. Sasuke would surely not be able to perform any jutsus – nothing of the sort they needed, a broad jutsu with lots of destruction that he didn't really need to aim but needed large amounts of chakra for. He didn't know how they would make up for the new turn of events, but he'd build that bridge when he needed to. Now, the second guard was approaching him, aiming the needle; it came down, closer and closer. He waited until the very last second and jumped into action, shooting into a fighting stance, the chains long ago unlocked by the key Kisame had given him. He launched into a fury of kicks and punches, using the surprise of his freedom as his biggest playing card. "Sasuke, now!" He yelled after the guards had begun to focus all their attention fighting him. Maybe, just maybe, Sasuke still had enough chakra.

Sasuke heard the fighting, and he had heard Naruto yelling, but he felt so weak. His body was half way numb and his head light. He was so tired and just wanted to sleep, but something, a small voice in the far corners of his mind, told him to stay awake, to stand up, to fight with everything he had. But then again, the voice could have easily been Naruto's, who was yelling at him with words he only half comprehended. Someone clenched the locks of his hair in a tight fist and pulled him upward, waking him up much quicker than Naruto's annoying yelling did. He bit down a yelp of surprise while trying to find his footing, but was being held just high enough that he couldn't reach the ground. A deep laugh was emitted from in front of his face along with a deep, sinister voice, "You think you can get away, little blind Uchiha?" A firm punch was delivered into his stomach so hard that blood swam up into his mouth. Another punch and he sprayed his mouthful of red, irony liquid into his attackers face. His attacker growled and threw Sasuke against the wall, letting him fall in a heap to the floor. Sasuke groaned painfully as he tried to collect himself into some semblance of order. "You little bastard, you're going to die just like your pompous ass of a brother."

"Sasuke!" Naruto shouted in worry.

Sasuke hated feeling so weak and helpless; being beat up by Pain's worthless mercenaries and having a person like Naruto worry over him. It was unsightly and just plain wrong for any member of the Uchiha Clan to be acting that way. Still, he couldn't find the urge to do more than recoil back when a kunai grazed his cheek and imbedded itself into the wall beside him. He heard Naruto growl and a wet scream from his attacker before he heard a bone snap and the thump of a lifeless body fall to the floor. He could also distinctly feel the feral and sinister aura of the Nine-Tailed Fox being emitted from Naruto's being.

"You okay, Sasuke?" Naruto asked, reigning in the demonic chakra cloak. The Akatsuki had placed a seal over the one he already had to prevent him from using any of the fox's chakra, but somehow he had managed to blast through it, aided by a strong surge of emotions.

"Tch," Why did Naruto have to protect him? Why did he have to be so insufferably weak? Was killing Itachi not enough to prove his strength?

Naruto walked over to Sasuke, his demonic kitsune-like features fading away, as he examined the cut Sasuke had received. He had just barely been able to assault Sasuke's attacker who was in mid throw of implanting a kunai right in the center of Sasuke's head. He let out a sigh of relief when he confirmed that his friend had only received a superficial cut. He couldn't help but notice the gruesome images of Sasuke's eyes. Before, when he unlocked the chains from Sasuke's hands and feet, it had been to dark to fully see, but now that the cell door was open and light streamed in from the fire-lit hallways he had a clear view of Sasuke's mangled eyes. They were covered in a thick layer of blood both dried and fresh; his eyelids drooped halfway over slashed eyeballs that didn't focus on anything. It was a grotesque sight that he had never wanted to see displayed on one of his precious people.

"What are you looking at, idiot?" Sasuke growled weakly.

Naruto shook his head, unseen, and grabbed Sasuke's arm, pulling it around his shoulders and lifting up his friend. "Nothing; we need to keep moving 'cause I doubt fish face with keep a path clear forever."

"Hn," Sasuke agreed, struggling to keep his footing and walk at Naruto's fast pace. They moved down the hall quietly, pausing at each corner and intersection to look in each direction for enemies. They continued onwards in labored – on Sasuke's part – silence for a few more minutes until Sasuke stumbled and would have fallen on his face when his knees buckled beneath him if it were not for Naruto holding him up.

"Sasuke…" Naruto voiced quietly, apprehensively.

Sasuke coughed through his scratchy throat that seemed not to permit enough air into his lungs. His coughing made his fuzzy head pound tenfold, and his remaining senses seemed to shut down. He could barely hear the words Naruto spoke next to him, much less comprehend them.

Naruto was really, really worried for his friend. He was afraid that he might have pushed him a bit too far. It stung to see his friend in so much pain, and all because he had opened his big mouth.

"Sasuke, are you okay?"

There was no reply, only dry hacking.

"Arg, we really need to keep going…" He growled out, more to himself. Sasuke had stopped coughing but was barely even supporting himself, leaving Naruto to carry his weight. He decided, swiftly, what to do and pulled Sasuke onto his back, wrapping his arms underneath Sasuke's legs. He shifted the weight to a better, easier to hold, position, before taking off as fast as he could down the hall, pushing chakra into his feet to make him go faster. He found it disturbingly strange that they had not run into anybody so far and started to grow increasingly paranoid. Finally, he heard a group of men running up a perpendicular hallway and stopped hiding himself and Sasuke in the shadows as they obliviously passed by, and was able to hear some of what was going on.

"What's happening?"

"Hebi, Sasuke's teammates, are trying to infiltrate our base to get Sasuke back!"

"Yeah, and their causing quite a ruckus, especially that big guy – Jugo, I think his name is…"

As soon as they had gone far enough away, Naruto continued forward, wondering if Kisame has somehow recruited Team Hebi to help in their escape.

He had gone up two flights of stairs and an endless – it seemed – hallway before he finally found a way outside: a window, just big enough for the two of them to pass through. He jumped through it, falling with the glass shards for several feet before he flipped and righted both he and Sasuke, latching onto the side of the wall with his chakra and running with momentum down its side to the muddy ground below. The rain that pelted down slowed him and made footing difficult, but he pushed on, running as fast and far as he could. He noticed a chakra signature come towards him – Kisame's if he remembered correctly – and soon the fish man was running alongside him.

"Took ya long enough," Kisame grumbled, taking in both boys's beaten appearance, "How's Sasuke?"

"Unconscious, but all right…I think; he just really needs some medical attention." Naruto replied.

Kisame nodded and dug something out of his cloak. Naruto tensed, anticipating an attack, but relaxed when Kisame offered him a small first-aid kit rather than a painful kunai to the gut. "Keep running until you get out of Rain Country – Pain will be able to find you as long as you're still here. There are more people coming after you now; I'll stall them long enough for you to cross the border, as they won't follow you any further. Once you're safe, tend to Sasuke as much as you can and head to Konohagakure. Pain and Madara will be coming after you again, but hopefully you'll have time to recuperate and grow stronger there until then. Hebi and I will try to help from afar; I'll get in touch with you if there is anything important."

Naruto nodded, trying to digest all the information at once.

"Now go!" Kisame shouted, coming to a halt and turning around to wait and face the fast approaching opponents.

And 'go' he did. Naruto ran, and ran, until the rain stopped and they passed the border between Rain and Fire. Even then he kept running, trying to get as far away from Rain and as Close to Konoha as possible before stopping.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

_Being surrounded by heat and flames wasn't so bad, Sasuke concluded. He had grown used to it. He thought that maybe it should have hurt when he fingered the dancing waves of fire at his feet and they climbed up his limbs to his face, before encasing his whole body. He stared at his flaming arm carefully, watching the fire twist and whip in the windless black space. The colors of the fire meshed together beautifully, he thought. At the base of the flames – where it was the hottest, he suspected – it was white and blue, but quickly turned in to a deep red, then orange, and finally a light yellow. Yes, he concluded, it _should_ hurt to have flames covering his body and he wondered why it didn't._

_A small drop of water descended from nowhere above him, diving through the fire and splashing on his face. It was then, when he felt the coolness of a single drop of liquid, that he noticed just how hot the inferno encasing him was. He screamed and clawed at his face where the flames were burning out his eyes, trying to get the fire off. That singular, little drop of liquid had unleashed a tsunami of agony over him, all spilling from the central location of his eyes._

Sasuke gasped audibly as a wet cloth was placed over his eyes. The dampness stung horribly against their wounds. He reached up with hand to pull the cloth away. Something grabbed his wrist, though, and he began to panic, struggling to break out of the person's grasp and remove the shockingly cold cloth.

"Sasuke, it's just me, calm down." Naruto spoke softly.

Sasuke frowned, his breathing still labored and panicked, he tried to reach up again, with his other hand this time, to remove the cloth. Again Naruto stopped him. "Naruto…" he ground out weakly, "Take it off, it hurts!" Sasuke heard a small 'oh' from Naruto's mouth and then felt the cloth being removed. Immediately, the sharp, cold, stinging receding to its normal, painful burning.

"Sorry…" Naruto offered timidly.

"Do you have any water?" Sasuke asked, noticing how scratchy his throat had been when he had asked for the cloth removed.

"Yeah, here," He replied, lifting up Sasuke's closest hand and putting a small canteen in it.

Sasuke carefully brought the container to his lips with shaky hands, careful not to spill too much while lying down. He held it out to Naruto when he was finished. "Where are we?"

"We just passed over the Rain/Fire boarder," Naruto easily lied, "I wanted to stop and make sure you were okay and take a quick break." He had actually traveled far past the boarders and deep into the forests of Fire country. They had, maybe, only a day more of running until they reached Konoha. He hadn't stopped until the sun had begun to set, but still gave enough light for him to treat Sasuke's wounds. He thought that the closer they were to Konoha, the easier it would be to take Sasuke there, if not by persuasion, then by force, or, if worse came to worse and Sasuke tried to fight back or run away, there might be a team of Konoha ninja nearby that could help. Hopefully, Sasuke wouldn't be able to call him out on his lie. He grabbed the cloth from the before, wetting it and squeezing out the excess water, and using it to gentle clean the dried up blood from Sasuke's face.

Sasuke winced as the cold, wet cloth touched his sensitive warm skin, starting at his cheek and gently wiping around his eyes. He tried not to flinch has Naruto's gentle finger covered in cloth came closer and closer to the inflamed wound, he knew it would hurt much worse if he were to jerk and make Naruto touch his eye. Instead, he sucked in sharp breaths of air through clenched teeth.

"You're burning up…" Naruto commented, rinsing the rag off with their little supply of water and, even more carefully, cleaning even closer around the eyes. Sasuke clutched the grass beside him in his fists. "And, I think your eyes might be infected. I'm not sure, I've never had to worry about injuries or being sick or anything because of Kyuubi, but I think this is what Sakura tried explaining to me once."

Sasuke held in a growl when Naruto jerked a little, "Are you almost done?"

"I think…the bloods not completely gone, but at least the area around your eyes is pretty clean." Naruto replied unsurely.

Sasuke sat up, as slowly as he possibly could. Still, his head pounded in protest and he felt quite dizzy. He held his head in one hand, trying to stabilize himself at least a little, and held his other hand out to Naruto, "Do have a long strip of cloth or some bandages?" There was no reply. The idiot must have nodded, as if he would have been able to see it. A second later, a small roll of bandages was placed in his palm. Sasuke tenderly wrapped the bandages around his head, not pulling too tight, but tight enough so that they would stay in place, and tied a secure knot in the back. He started to stand but quickly – thankfully – Naruto helped him all the way to his feet. He wavered, unsteady, for several minutes, holding tightly to Naruto's shoulders, else the world spun profusely in wild circles.

"Are you sure you're up to traveling already?" Naruto asked, watching as pain and disorientation flitted across his features.

"I can walk for a little while…" Sasuke voiced, not even sounding sure to himself.

There was a pause as Naruto stared at his friend with a thoughtful expression, "All right, but if you can't walk anymore, tell me – I won't hold it against you."

"Hn, like I need your help, idiot…" Sasuke retorted, letting a weak smile claim half of his mouth.

Naruto smiled, relieved that Sasuke wouldn't choose to suffer silently on his own and glad he wouldn't have to resort to knocking the Uchiha out just to make him rest.

They set off, walking slowly, with Sasuke's arm slung over Naruto's shoulders and Naruto holding on to Sasuke's waist. They took small steps and covered very little ground, Sasuke's feet hesitant to come too far off the ground. Often, Sasuke's tentative feet would hit a rock, stumble in a thick patch of grass, or trip over a tree root that had just barely broken the surface of the earth. After an hour of struggle, Sasuke finally, breathlessly admitted that he couldn't go on, at which time Naruto pulled him onto his back and jumped up into the trees. It wasn't an hour later that Sasuke fell asleep again, unconsciousness claiming his weary mind and body.


	3. A Darkness That Can Be Felt

**Author's Note: **Sorry this chapter was so short. I had initially planned for about two or three more scenes to be added, but changed my mind and decided I didn't really like those parts. So this is what you get. Somewhat short, but it's a good stopping point.**  
**

**Warning:** A fair share of blood, gore, vivid details, violence, and a bit of mild/strong language

**Afraid of the Dark**  
_A Darkness That Can Be Felt_

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Sasuke awoke to a familiar idiot's yelling followed by hushed voices that were distinctly feminine.

"You can't do this to him!"

"Naruto, he abandoned the village and became a missing-nin. You can't expect us to allow him to return without proper punishment." The woman's voice was too low to identify.

"Don't you get it? Sasuke is fucking _blind_! Isn't that enough?!"

"Naruto, keep your voice down, people are trying to sleep!" Another woman yelled. Sasuke could recognize that annoying voice anywhere.

The voices quieted, too low for him to hear or make out anything. He took the moment to identify his surroundings. Based on the conversation he had heard, he was in Konoha, in a hospital. He moved his fingers slightly, identifying the starchy, rough sheets, also, the metal cuffs which tugged at his wrists as he moved his hands. There were also a couple needles inserted and taped to his left arm, and a tube under his nose. Moving on from his sense of touch to the sounds around him, he heard a steady beep that was in rhythm with the thud inside his chest.

"Naruto, we'll talk about this later. Go home and get some rest; I'll call you when he's allowed visitors."

There was loud grumbling, obviously Naruto complaining about the orders, and then the door to the hospital room slid open, shutting a minute later. There were footsteps on the linoleum tile flooring – two sets, light and delicate, obviously kunoichi.

Sasuke lay completely still to feign sleep, straining to hear what was going on around him.

"Poor kid…" one lady, the one he did not recognize, said softly as she picked up a clipboard from the end of his bed.

"Who, Naruto or Sasuke?" It was Sakura; her voice sounded older, more mature, but it still was easy to identify.

The tubes connected to his arm moved a bit. Sasuke guessed that one of them was checking the fluids being shot into him.

There was a sigh from the other lady, "Well, both of them, but I was talking about Naruto."

"Hm," Sakura acknowledged. Her hand slowly settled on top of Sasuke's, stroking the top of it with her thumb before turning it and embracing it in a loving squeeze.

Sasuke struggled not to flinch from the sudden, unexpected touch or to pull away. He was intrigued by their conversation; they still thought him asleep and he didn't want to blow his cover. He pulled his mind away from the soft, warm hand embracing his and to the other lady, whom he had yet to identify.

"I know he feels guilty for what happened to Sasuke and I'm sure that's why he doesn't want me to punish Sasuke." She paused, fumbling with something at the side of his bed. "I can't just not punish him – he's a dangerous missing-nin, for heaven's sake – but I know I'll hurt Naruto by doing so."

He could tell, by what was being said and the authority in the woman's voice, that she held a high position of power, although what position, he was clueless. Either way, what she was saying about Naruto troubled him. Obviously Naruto was the biggest idiot in all of the elemental countries, but he wasn't stupid enough to think that it was his fault that Sasuke got blinded, and he's not so sensitive that he would be hurt by an authority figure performing her duty, even if that entailed punishing a blind man. Still, since Naruto had drug him to Konoha, he didn't expect not to get punished and would accept whatever retribution was given him.

Sasuke spoke suddenly in a weak , dry voice, startling both women, "Naruto isn't guilty – even if he is he should shove it up his ass and get over it. I chose to be blinded myself, and I knew that once I returned to Konoha I would be punished."

Sakura immediately ripped her hand away from Sasuke's. "Sasuke…h-how long have you been awake?" She stuttered, obviously embarrassed.

Sasuke made a display of wiping the hand Sakura had been holding on the bed sheets, smearing off the slight condensation that had developed at the warmth, and merely grunted in response.

The authoritative lady grasped the railing of the bed, where one hand was cuffed to, "Don't worry, you'll get a punishment, no doubt about that, but…" her voice grew softer, kinder, "Naruto really does feel bad about this whether its really his fault or not."

"Hn," Sasuke snorted stubbornly.

The lady sighed, pushing the topic out of her mind. "Anyways, since you're awake I'm going to remove the wrapping around your head to take a look at how your eyes are healing. When you got here, they were a bloody, inflated messy and had started to get infected, which is why it hurt so much when Naruto tried to tend to you on your way here." As she spoke, she gently reached behind his head and pulled the wrappings off. Sasuke opened his eyes slowly to darkness and blinked several times as if to clear his vision of the blackness and see the lights that no doubt lined the room's ceiling. "How do they feel? Can you see anything?"

There was a slight burning in his eyes, nothing unbearable, but noticeable. He frowned, concentrating on making out any kind of shape in the obscure blackness, even a slight difference in shade or a glimmer of light. His result was unchanging. "I don't see anything but black."

"What about any pain?" she urged.

"It burns a little when they're open, but nothing I can't handle." He said as he closed his eyes; it didn't hurt if they were closed.

She hummed softly in thought, "They shouldn't be hurting anymore… Why don't you open your eyes for just a minute? I'm going to shine a flashlight into them to see if they respond."

Sasuke did as he was told. There was a click – the flashlight, he assumed. He waited in the thick darkness, wondering if the light really was being shined into his eyes and observing how strange it was to know that there was light and color all around him, but not be able to see any of it.

"Well it certainly doesn't seem like you can see; your eyes are distant and your pupils don't react at all to the light when I shine them in. Where you able to tell if there was any change from the flashlight?"

Sasuke shook his head.

The bandages were retied around his head, just as gently as they had been removed, "I've healed them the best I could but they had been damaged for good amount of time already, plus the infection that had begun to develop, so I wasn't able to do anything more than heal the physical wounds. I'm not sure it's even possible to completely heal your eyes back to normal – it's never been done before."

He remained silent. The woman's footsteps began walking away. "Wait," he called – almost desperately, especially for an Uchiha –lifting his cuffed hand as far as it would, "What's the chance of my vision returning? I've heard before that it's possible that a blind person see again."

The footsteps paused, "The chances of you being able to see fully again are maybe one or two percent at best. You may eventually be able to see light, but maybe not."

"What about my sharingan?" He nearly interrupted.

She sighed, "I'm not sure, Sasuke. There's no definite way of knowing until you try it – but I don't want you to try until your eyes are completely healed or else the stress of forcing your kekki genkai may damage your eyes further."

He wasn't sure how he felt about the news. Sure he had already killed his brother, but that didn't mean he could stop trying to get stronger. And now, suddenly, he was just as weak, or weaker, than a fresh out of the academy genin. The lady had told him not to try out his sharingan, but his curiosity would not let him obey. He would try it out as soon as he got out of the hospital and away from such tight supervision.

"Tsunade-sama, you're needed in the emergency room." A voice suddenly shouted from the door.

Suddenly, the woman's voice clicked in his mind and all the facts aligned. He had only met the new hokage a few times before he had left, but he knew quite a bit about her through Orochimaru.

"Alright, I'm coming. Sasuke, someone from T & I will be by in a few hours to interrogate you. Don't try anything funny in between now and then, there is an ANBU squad stationed around your room and the perimeters of the hospital should you get any big ideas." Her footsteps headed towards the door and she opened it. "Sakura, let's go."

Sakura, who had not moved, hurriedly followed the lady out, shutting the door firmly.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

"Rise and shine, Uchiha," A thunderous, gruff voice commanded, slamming the door as he came in.

Sasuke frowned, "I'm not asleep."

A chair was dragged across the floor next to his bed, making a sharp screeching sound that made his ears ring slightly.

"So, Uchiha, welcome back to Konoha," The smug voice said as its owner placed a clipboard and some papers in front of him on the bed, next to Sasuke's leg.

Sasuke scowled at the man's condescending tone. "Who are you?" he snarled.

The man all but ignored him, skipping formalities to get down to business. "What was your reason for leaving Konoha?"

"I asked you a question first."

The man did not respond for several minutes. Eventually, he let out an amused chuckle. "Alright, Uchiha, I'll play your little game. My name's Morino Ibikki, head of Konoha's ANBU Torture and Interrogation Squad, I'm sure you've heard about me. Now answer my question: Why did you leave Konoha and go to Orochimaru?"

Sasuke _had_ heard of Morino Ibikki; if that man was here, Konoha meant business about getting information from him and he would have to be cautious of the psychological attacks Ibikki was so well known for. "I don't have to tell you anything."

"Hmm…from what Naruto said, you were both captured and held prisoner by Akatsuki where one of the guards blinded you. How exactly did that play out?"

Sasuke remained silent, lips pursed in agitation as the painful memories of being blinded came to the forefront of his mind. He had to be even more careful. He had no idea what Naruto and told them and Ibikki would no doubt use that to his advantage.

"Look we can do this the easy way or I can drag the information I want out of you, which I much prefer to this. Either way, I _will_ get my answers. Depending on how much you cooperate, the Hokage is willing to lessen your punishment. So, if I were you, I'd get to talking."

Sasuke remained silent. His own life no longer mattered to him. He had killed Itachi and he would not fight death or torture now that he had finally accomplished his ambition. Simply put, he had no more dreams, no more drive to live on. His only life goal had been accomplished and he had nothing precious left.

"So, threatening you won't work, huh? I guess it wouldn't, seeing as you've already achieved your desire of killing your brother, right?"

Sasuke resisted the urge to shiver at how well the man was reading his mind.

"Why don't we up the steaks then? If threatening you won't work, I'll just have to threaten the people closest to you, Naruto, for instance."

If Sasuke's eyes had been open at the time, they would have widened in horror. Instead, his body stiffened.

"I mean, you did take the punishment that Pain had intended for him, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind taking your punishment from Konoha in exchange, which very well could be execution at the rate things are going now."

Sasuke's fists clenched as shock turned to simmering anger.

"I'm sure not many besides you would miss him; the villagers and the council have been trying to rid themselves of him since the day he was born. But then again, you're the last Uchiha, the heartless man who killed his own brother. Even you wouldn't shed a tear if the Kyuubi was killed in your place."

The anger grew further until he could contain himself no more. Everything came out in one massive display as he kicked the clipboard and papers off the side of the bed, sitting up while pulling at his restraints, and yelling at his interrogator. "Naruto is not the damn Kyuubi! And you have no right to punish him for my crimes – he hasn't done anything at all to hurt this fucking village, so leave him out of the picture!" By the end of the small explosion, he was breathing heavily, throat a bit sore, and letting himself slouch forward with exertion. The heart monitor, by this time, was beeping loudly and frequently, reminding them both that Sasuke's body was still weak and healing.

A nurse burst through the door, having heard the yelling and commotion, "Is everything all right in here?"

"Quite," Ibikki supplied in a sickeningly sweet voice.

The nurse's footsteps crossed the room and Sasuke soon felt her hand on his shoulder and chest, slowly pushing him back into a laying position. His head was pounding too much for him to resist. "Sasuke, your body is still recovering from so much blood loss, so please try to stay calm and lay down." She left quickly after she had checked the monitors and fluids.

Ibikki slowly picked the papers and clipboard off the floor, deciding to hold them instead of placing them back on the bed. "This is not a compromise, Uchiha, will you give me the information I want or not?"

He had fallen deeply and near unnoticeably into Ibikki's complete control. He wasn't entirely sure the man could follow through with his threats, but his points made sense enough for him to fear for Naruto's safety. His father had always told him to pick his battles wisely, and unfortunately, this was one he knew he would not win. "For power; I went to Orochimaru for power."

The knowing smile that appeared on Ibikki's face was evident even in his voice, "I'm glad you see it my way."

Sasuke laid there for hours more, answering Ibikki's questions with as few words and as little information as the man would permit. He gave nothing away that wasn't asked for and answered just enough to satisfy the man's curiosity.

When Ibikki had finished, he stood from his chair and took his leave, kindly leaving his regards as if the past four hours had been a nice chat between two old friends catching up. It halfway sickened Sasuke to think how easily he and been maneuvered, but more than that, he was exhausted from the ordeal and quickly fell asleep.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

_Itachi's delicate and murderous fingers came forward, slowly crossing the space to Sasuke's eye. Sasuke was nearly paralyzed in fear. He was trapped; Itachi was right there in front of him. His fingers were around his eye, digging in. "Forgive me, Sasuke." And then there was a sickeningly wet pop._

"_Ghaaaaaaaaaaah!" Sasuke screamed and his voice echoed in the small, dark room. Dark, thick blood poured from his, now empty left eye socket. His eye lid automatically closed, not supported by any mass, and caved in slightly. Still, the blood leaked out underneath. He was breathing heavily, left arm still pinned above his head._

_Itachi slipped the eyeball into a small jar and tucked it away inside his coat before reaching out again for the other eye. His fingers pushed in around Sasuke's remaining eye in the same way they had for his left eye. _

_Determined not to let his brother win again, Sasuke used all his strength to grab Itachi's wrist with his free hand. It was a struggle of power as Itachi tried to dig out Sasuke's eye and Sasuke desperately tried to pull his brother's hand away. Finally, growing annoyed, Itachi ripped his hand back and out of his little brother's grasp. He violently pulled Sasuke away from the wall and threw him to the ground, creating four extra clones who each pinned down one of Sasuke's limbs. Itachi leaned over Sasuke's head so that he was the only thing his little brother could see, "It's time, Sasuke. Help me make my dream a reality." Itachi deliberately moved towards Sasuke's eye, allowing his brother to struggle against his clones and be embraced completely by fear. He gripped around Sasuke's eye, pausing there for a moment, and then ripped the eye out without mercy._

_Sasuke screamed. He had known what it was going to feel like, it had just happened to his other eye, but the pain was unethical and it coursed through his body like a torrent of lightening. He couldn't see anything anymore, there was only complete, oppressing darkness – and, of course, Itachi's diabolical laughing._

_-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --_

Naruto squinted at the slightly taller, young man in front of him. "What do you mean I can go in?"

"I mean exactly what I said," the man, who was dressed in white nurse garb, replied curtly, "you cannot go into that room right now."

Two ANBU guards stood stoically and stone-faced (when did the white animal masks ever show any emotion?) behind the nurse, on each side of the door that led to Sasuke's hospital room. He could probably take them, Naruto thought to himself, gauging their strength if he were to force his way in. His piercing blue eyes snapped back to the nurse. "Look, I talked to the Hokage personally and she signed this permission slip," he half yelled, waving the yellow slip of paper in the man's face, "giving me an express pass in to see Sasuke. So you have no right to not allow me in."

The nurse was starting to get pissed by now, "Mr. Uchiha is asleep right now; this hospital does not allow visitors to patients who are asleep, unless the visitor is a legal guardian or is blood-related. So, for the final time, I will ask you to kindly take a seat in the lobby or I will have you escorted off of the premises."

Naruto was about to start arguing again when there was a scream from inside Sasuke's room. The four people out in the hallway – Naruto, the nurse, and the two ANBU – looked at each other questioningly before they all rushed inside the room, forgetting their previous argument. They found Sasuke lying in bed, firmly grasping a nurse's wrist, to the point where red marks could be seen. Immediately they jumped into action, pulling Sasuke's hand off of the shocked nurse. Sasuke fought against the two ANBU, Naruto, and the other nurse. The four had to resort to pinning each of his limbs down to prevent him from hurting any of them or himself. Still, he thrashed around, breathing laboriously, and they struggled to keep him under control.

"What the hell happened in here? Why did Sasuke grab you?" Naruto shouted to the panicked and scared nurse who was holding her wrist to her chest protectively.

The nurse shook her head, "I-I don't know. He was asleep and I was checking his IV and blood, and I noticed that the wrappings around his eyes were beginning to loosen. I was trying to tighten them when he suddenly reached up and grabbed my wrist."

Naruto frowned and looked up to Sasuke face which was contorted into fear and pain, a strange expression to see on the cold Uchiha survivor. No doubt, the raven haired teen was being assaulted from an intense and all too real dream. "Sasuke…" he called, gently at first.

Sasuke didn't respond, but seemed to struggle more. The nurse was pushed back by Sasuke's arm and fell unceremoniously to the floor. And Sasuke screamed, his voice laced with pain and a cold sweat dripping from his forehead.

"Sasuke, wake up!" Naruto yelled, slapping him on the side of the face.

Sasuke suddenly stilled, the room growing silent once again except for the fast paced beeping of the heart monitor and Sasuke's slightly hitched, raspy breathing. Cautiously, the ANBU released Sasuke's limbs and took a tentative step back, prepared to jump back in if need be.

"Sasuke," Naruto called cautiously, trying to reign in Sasuke's attention or be acknowledged.

Sasuke was confused; he wasn't sure what was going on or where he was. There was still a suffocating blackness surrounding him, eating at him, closing in from all sides, but there was no longer that intense, electrifying pain that shot through has body. If only he was not restrained, he would reach up and pull down the thick blanket of black that hung in front of him to see what was going on. A voice called his name. It was barely audible through the thick nothingness. It didn't sound like his brother, although the voice was directly over him, but he had to make sure. He dove through the darkness.

Sasuke's hand quickly lifted towards Naruto. The ANBU started to move forward, but Naruto waved them down. Sasuke's fingers found Naruto's jaw bone and clumsily ran over the rest of his face, taking extra care to examine his eyes, cheeks and mouth.

"N-Naruto?" Sasuke asked shakily, as if he was shocked but relieved at who he found.

"Yeah," Naruto replied softly.

Sasuke took a sharp intake of breath and his hand fell from Naruto's face, moving frantically towards his own. Sasuke fumbled with the wrappings around his head, hurriedly pulling them off and running over his own eyes. He allowed himself to breathe again, finding that, yes, he did still have his own eyes and that, no, Itachi had not taken them. Of course he hadn't, Itachi was dead – but that dream had felt so real. He tried to calm himself as Naruto assured the nurses and ANBU that Sasuke was fine and they could leave.

"Bad dream?" Naruto asked warily and sat in the chair Ibikki had used before and left beside Sasuke's bed.

Sasuke let his hand slip from his face and he looked in Naruto's general direction, keeping his eyes closed so not to pain him.

Naruto decided not to press the issue since the nightmare had obviously shaken his friend and switched the subject, "So, how are you feeling, Sasuke?"

He stayed quiet, still trying to calm himself and forget the shaking nightmare.

Naruto laughed nervously. "That bad, huh?" he asked as he picked up the wrappings Sasuke had thrown in his panic-induced haste and started wrapping them back around Sasuke's eyes.

Sasuke flinched when Naruto's hands and the bandages suddenly appeared near his head. "Why did you bring me back?" Sasuke demanded almost before Naruto had finished talking, ignoring the blonde's hands which were tying the bandage in a gentle knot behind him.

Naruto seemed to deflate as his hands returned to his side.

"You knew I didn't want to come back, but you did it anyways. Now they're punishing me, and threatening to punish you in my place if I don't cooperate." Sasuke growled.

Naruto looked up from the floor to Sasuke who was scowling slightly and clenching his retrained fists. He frowned partially in confusion, but then smiled after he had figured out what had happened, but decided he would spare his friend the embarrassment of knowing he had been tricked into giving information. He had already talked with Tsunade and had found out that Sasuke's punishment was going to be rather light considering the crime since he had received Naruto's punishment and guessed the interrogator had not told Sasuke this to get as much information as possible out of him. Naruto struggled to keep the laughter or smile out of his voice. "I'll talk to granny Tsunade later to set things straight." That alone didn't seem to satisfy the Uchiha who frowned deeper, so he continued. "I, um, I brought something for you…"

Sasuke's scowl lightened and he jumped a little when Naruto's hand brushed against his and a piece of metal attached to cloth was set in his hand. He ran his fingers over the surface of the metal and immediately knew what it was.

"It's your headband…" Naruto supplied, seeing as Sasuke couldn't seem to formulate any words, "from when you left. I kept it for you, in case you ever came back. We also – Sakura, Kakashi, and me – kept all your stuff when they decided to sell your apartment. It's all stored at Sakura's house right now since she was the only one with enough storage space at her house."

Sasuke nodded somewhat distractedly.

"If you want anything, I can go get it for you." The blond stated, almost as a question.

Sasuke was silent a moment, sifting through the memories of what he owned from three years ago. "Just a change of clothes." He definitely didn't want to stay in the revealing hospital gown he was wearing, especially when he was finally allowed to get up out of bed and walk around. He didn't want to worry about anyone peaking through the open back of his current wear.

Naruto smiled and stood, "All right, I'll find something that you can wear and be back in a little while."

"Hn," Sasuke replied, giving a small nod. He heard Naruto cross the room and then softly open the door. He paused though, before stepping out of the room. Naruto's clothes rustled, as if he was nervous and debating something, "I'm really glad you're back, Sasuke." Sasuke couldn't help but notice the sincerity and pure happiness that whirled in Naruto's words. After Naruto left, Sasuke ran his fingers over the headband again, thinking how big of idiots his teammates were for keeping all his belongings for three years in hopes that he would return. Although he would never admit it to any of their faces, he was grateful.


	4. When War Came

**Author's Note: **In all actuality, 4,000 hours isn't that much. There are 8,760 hours in a year, give or take a little. So that's 4,380 if you count half of that for sleeping and eating. Give about a month for all the holidays throughout a year, which is 4,020. Divide that in half to give enough time to adjust to blindness and training time, round a little, and you have the nice even number of 2,000. Simple enough. Then times two, because I want the community service to last for two years. Done and doner. Or I could have just chosen a random number. My original number (before all the math) was 3,600. What can I say? … Well, nothing really.

**Warning: **violence (not really) and a bit of mild/strong language

**Afraid of the Dark  
**When War Came

* * *

"Sakura!" Naruto yelled as he jumped down from the rooftops to his teammate's doorstep, banging obnoxiously on the door. "Sakura-" he started again, still banging when the door opened to reveal an irate man, easily twice the size as he.

"What do you want, demon?" the man snarled, glaring at the blond threateningly.

"Dad, who's at the door?" came Sakura's voice from somewhere inside the Haruno's house.

"No one," the big man hollered back, never taking his eyes off the demon vessel.

Naruto had met Sakura's parent before; the meeting had been less than pleasant all around. They had yelled obscenities and had dragged their daughter all the way to the Hokage tower, demanding she be placed on another team. Their request had been refused instantly and they had been especially hateful ever since.

"I – I just need to talk to Sakura." Even now, nearly an adult and a skilled ninja, he was uneasy around the villagers that hates him. He knew he was being ridiculous; he could easily protect himself should someone attack him, but his years of being the village pariah and scapegoat had left their scar. He figured he would never completely overcome his fear.

"Sakura's busy right now," the man replied shortly.

"But –" Naruto started.

Sakura's father scowled and quickly silenced the blond with a firm slap in the face.

Naruto stilled completely and shut his mouth, eyes holding a sliver of fear. Even if he wasn't reliving painful memories or scared out of his mind right now, he wouldn't be able to make himself fight Sakura's father. He knew Sakura would be hurt if he attacked either of her parents, deserved or not.

"Get lost, demon filth!" the man shouted, nearly slamming the door in the blonde's face if Sakura had not stepped in between them at that very moment.

"Naruto? She questioned cautiously, noticing her teammate's stillness after her father's angry yelling. She examined his hollow, near terrified eyes, the blank expression on his face, and the red handprint on the side of his cheek. She spun around, furious, to glare meaningfully at her father who merely huffed and stalked back into the house. Sakura shut the door lightly and turned back to her stunned teammate, activating her healing chakra. She gently reached out and stole away the sting from Naruto's inflamed cheek. "Naruto, I'm so sorry. You came to see me, right? What did you need?" She asked kindly, melting away Naruto's memories and unease with each word.

"U-um, Sasuke wanted some of his clothes to change into since his other outfit is stained and ruined beyond repair. I just came to pick some of his things up."

Sakura pulled her hand back, happy to see that the angry red mark and Naruto's strange behavior had disappeared. "I'm not exactly sure that Sasuke's clothes from three years ago will still fit him. You'd be better off going to the store and buying him something new."

"Oh, right," Naruto laughed, scratching the back of his head. "I guess I'll just head to the store, then." He replied, quickly waving goodbye as he turned to leave.

"Wait, wait, wait," Sakura commanded, yanking the blond back by the sleeve of his obnoxious orange jacket, "You're not allowed to buy Sasuke any sort of clothing without supervision."

"Aww, but Sakura, Sasuke could rock the color orange!"

Sakura punched her blond exasperatedly on the top of his head, "Naruto! Don't even think of getting Sasuke orange clothes! It's bad enough having one teammate in such a repulsively bright color! No," she continued, almost as if talking and brainstorming to herself, "someone has to accompany you, but I've got to start my shift at the hospital in a few minutes."

"How about Kakashi-sensei then?" Naruto offered. He figured that Kakashi would have his nose stuffed too far into his adult rated book to noticed if one or two articles of clothing had a bit of orange on them.

Sakura hummed thoughtfully. She knew Kakashi wouldn't let Naruto pick out something too outlandish. "Alright, but you have to promise to get Kakashi and not go shopping alone."

Naruto huffed indignantly.

"Naruto…" Sakura warned with a shaking fist.

The boy held his hands up in defense, "Alright, alright, I promise I'll get Kakashi!"

She gave him one last stern, calculating look, "I've got to finish getting ready. I'll probably see you later at the hospital."

Naruto smiled, waving as he turned around. "Bye, Sakura!" he yelled enthusiastically as she stepped inside.

She smiled to herself, closing the door firmly. She was happy that Sasuke had finally come back, happy to get her cheerful Naruto back.

* * *

Naruto grumbled sourly as he walked alongside his white haired teacher, one bag of fresh-off-the-hanger clothes in his hand. Clothes that had absolutely no orange on them. It seemed Kakashi agreed with Sakura that Sasuke should not wear any orange. He had tried though. He never thought his sensei could be so observant while reading that stupid perverted book.

"You could have at least let me get the black pants with an orange stripe down the side." Naruto complained.

Kakashi ignored his unhappy blond student, contentedly letting himself be engrossed by the book which he had read many times before.

They soon entered into the bright, antiseptic smelling lobby of the hospital which was only slightly crowded this morning. They bypassed the front desk, heading straight to the elevator towards Sasuke's hospital room. They saw Sakura along the way, busily helping another patient and waved as they passed. It wasn't very long until they arrived at Sasuke's room and were stopped by the two ANBU guards who snapped to attention the moment the two were in sight.

"I'm sorry, but Hokage-sama is not allowing visitors to Uchiha-san right now." One of the guards stated in his most official authoritative voice while standing firm. The other fidgeted nervously beside him.

"What the hell?" Naruto yelled, nearly tossing the bag of clothes when he threw his hands up in frustration, "I was in here just an hour ago – you know that Granny Tsunade is letting me in!"

The ANBU shook his head. "I was given very specific orders to allow no one in besides the Hokage herself, hospital personnel, and Sasuke's interrogator."

"You must be pretty new to ANBU, are you not?" Kakashi asked blandly, his nose stuffed in his book.

"I, well…" The ANBU stuttered, momentarily caught off guard.

"As your higher ranking superior and a former ANBU captain, Hatake Kakashi, I am ordering you to stand down and let me pass. If you have any questions, you can talk to your partner. Maybe he can teach you a thing or two about respecting your superiors." The scarecrow pushed past the surprised ninja and opened the door, letting Naruto and himself in as the ANBU tried to pull himself together.

"Technically speaking, being a former ANBU captain can't get you in to an otherwise prohibited area." Sasuke stated coolly once the door had been shut again.

"I suppose my reputation and skill are widely known and feared…" Kakashi mused.

Sasuke snorted, "Hardly."

"Hey bastard, we got you some clothes. Kakashi-sensei bought new ones because your old clothes are all too small."

There was a pause after Naruto's exclamation.

"What, you want me to say 'thank you' or something?"

"That is usually the socially appropriate thing to do when someone gives you a gift, but you have been gone for quite a while, so I think we can excuse you just this time. Don't worry; it will all come back to you eventually, Sasuke." Kakashi teased as he walked to the side of Sasuke's bed and pulled out a set of keys, unlocking the cuffs that bound Sasuke's hands to the bed.

Sasuke frowned, pulling his hands away as much as he could, "What are you doing?"

"Yeah! You could get Sasuke into a lot of trouble!" Naruto shouted.

"What do you think I'm doing, Sasuke? I'm taking these cuffs off of you."

"But why?" Sasuke continued guardedly. As his blond teammate had said, he could get into a lot of trouble, more so than the shit load he was in now, if someone found him unrestrained, whether he was aiming to break free or not.

"I thought you might like to take a shower and stretch your legs a little bit. You've been in this bed for almost three days now and before that, locked up in cell. You really are starting to stink."

"Well, that is true…" Naruto added, holding his chin in his hand with a thoughtful expression on his face while watching his best friend and teacher.

"Besides," Kakashi continued, tucking the keys back into his pocket and setting the pair of cuffs aside on the bedside table, "I'll be with you to vouch for you and I don't really think…well, I'm sure Tsunade won't mind as long as I'm here."

Sasuke's face suddenly turned hard, "You don't think what, Kakashi? You don't think I'm capable of escaping? You don't think I'm a threat to everyone in Konoha? You probably think I'm too weak to do anything, huh?"

Silence.

"Sasuke, I'm sure Kakashi doesn't think that—" Naruto tried to comfort all the while rolling his eyes at his friends defensiveness.

"Actually, yes. I don't think you would be able to leave, even if you did want to. That's why I took off the cuffs; there's no real reason for them anyways."

Sasuke seethed inwardly while merely crossing his arms and sulking. If he wanted to, he probably could bust out of this shitty hospital. If he put his mind to it. He could probably set the whole town ablaze, because even without sight his sharingan could cause aimless havoc. He didn't need Kakashi watching over him like some perverted babysitter. He didn't need anyone. He was perfectly capable of managing on his own.

"So do you want that shower, or not?"

"Hn," Sasuke growled, grabbing the edge of the blanket and throwing it to the side. He sat up quickly, only to stop suddenly and hold his head in his hands as his brain threatened to burst.

"Careful, Sasuke, there's no need to rush. Go slow and get used to things." Kakashi held on to the raven's arm to give him added support.

"Get off!" Sasuke yelled, yanking his arm recklessly out of his teacher's grasp. He quickly recoiled back to holding his even more sensitive head.

"Kakashi-sensei, I think he's mad at you..." Naruto whispered as if Sasuke wasn't sitting right there.

"Ah, I believe he is."

There was blissful, gracious silence for several moments. The thundering in his head didn't recede, but the lack of noise certainly helped.

"Sasuke, are you okay?" Naruto asked quietly, stepping a few feet closer.

Nails on a chalkboard.

"Naruto…" Sasuke squeezed out in as quiet of a voice he could manage.

"What?" The blonde's whisper was a bit louder and anticipating.

"Please, just shut the fuck up for a while."

"O-oh." The blond recoiled.

Again there was quiet. After quite a bit of time had passed – and Sasuke wasn't even entirely sure the others were still in the room, except for the fact that he hadn't heard the door open or close – and when he had finally decided that his head was a little bit better, enough so that he could ignore the rest of the throbbing, he lifted his head.

"Feeling better?" Kakashi asked from several feet away. He must have moved over to one of the guest chairs lined up against the wall near the door.

He glanced over in his teacher's direction but turned back to where he was sitting and carefully lifted himself off the edge of the bed. He stood up and locked shaky legs in a standing position at the side of his bed and released his hold on the bed railing once he was sure his legs wouldn't give out on him. His body swayed, like a tall tower is moved by a strong wind. It felt like his head was running in circles around him while still being attached to his shoulders. It was hard to tell if he wasn't falling, descending through an infinite darkness. He wondered when he would hit the hard ground of reality. He took a small step, arms stretched out in front of him. His world rocked even more and his unsteady legs wavered beneath him while his head spun in dizzying circles.

"Careful, Sasuke," Naruto reprimanded, holding up his friend by the arm, "Just take it easy; you don't have to push yourself."

"Hn," he felt connected, like he was actually standing somewhere instead of lost in the abyss.

Naruto tugged on his arm slightly and Sasuke followed with small, unsure steps, just as they had in the forest on their way back to Konoha after being captured by Akatsuki. Even with Naruto there, though, it still felt strange walking in complete darkness, not knowing what lay around you or where you were headed.

* * *

"What?" Sasuke growl threateningly. The menace in his voice was almost strong enough to rival the deadliness of the Uchiha Massacre.

"I know, isn't this great?" Naruto practically shouted in ecstasy, nearly bouncing up and down while holding on to the railing on the side of Sasuke's bed.

'No, it's not 'great.'' The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. An intense look of disgust painted itself on Sasuke's features. "No." Honestly, he wondered what the hell the hokage was thinking.

"What?" Naruto stopped his jocular bouncing, his voice sobering and sounding somewhat like a hurt puppy.

If his eyes had not still been wrapped in bandages, with or without sight, he would have sent a staggering glare in the blonde's direction, instead he settled for crossing his arms and a finalizing, "Hn."

"B-but," Naruto stuttered, trying to recover his hurt, "I spent a lot of effort getting your punishment leveled down to just one year of probation and four thousand hours of community service."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, unbeknown to the others who filled the room. He decided to ignore Naruto, since he was being a complete idiot at the moment, "I'm not going to stay in the same fucking house as Naruto. The idiot couldn't help me even if I told him what to do. You must be growing senile in your old age, Hokage-sama, because even you know this moron would be more of a hindrance than a help."

Naruto growled ferally, "Watch your tongue, bastard! Just because you're blind doesn't mean I won't beat your scrawny, white ass senseless!"

Tsunade, it seemed, had no conscious. Her iron fist came down like a hammer upon Sasuke's head, scaring him half way off the bed at the sudden, brutal assault. His surprise was soon overshadowed by the pounding lump on the top of his head.

"Granny, what'd you do that for?" Naruto shot.

She easily brushed the blond off, "Fine, if you don't want to stay with Naruto, I'll just have to put you with Kakashi."

A disturbing giggle came from none other than Kakashi at that very moment.

The Uchiha couldn't quite suppress a shiver as what he imagined would happen if he were to move in with Kakashi. His future looked, at best, dismal. "I will not stay with Kakashi."

Tsunade glared at the unseeing raven, hands placed irritatingly on her hips. She glanced at Kakashi who sat in the corner of the room and who, she knew for a fact, wasn't even reading his book. He had been watching the argument with the surviving Uchiha. She thought it supremely annoying that the brat, Kakashi, would make Sasuke to say no to her compromised offer by making perverted giggles. "This isn't up for debate, Sasuke," she stated, her voice icy.

"I. Am. Not. Going."

"Granny, I thought you said Sasuke was going to stay with me!" Naruto protested, nearly crawling over the bed to get up in Tsunade's face. Sasuke kicked him off his bed and into an uncoordinated pile on the floor, a simmering anger just barely being contained.

"Too bad, Sasuke is being a self-centered brat, so anything previously agreed upon goes out the window," She replied.

Kakashi giggled.

"He could make me his fucking play toy and molest me for his perverted interest, for all you know! Every time I take a shower he'll make some half-assed excuse to get in with me!" Sasuke shouted. He would admit it – even though Kakashi had been his genin instructor – he was quite scared to actually live with the man.

"Sasuke, you know I'm not that way," Kakashi reprimended, a deadly edge in his words; the first words, in fact, that he had said all evening.

Tsunade frowned, "We might have a problem with food poisoning though, Kakashi can't cook to save his life."

"I can cook!" Naruto hollered, crawling back to his feet. Was that…desperation in his voice?

"Naruto, you only know how to cook ramen." Tsunade drawled.

Naruto harrumphed.

* * *

It was bad enough walking through the streets of Konoha with a certain orange clad blond holding on to his arm and leading him down the dusty, well traveled road. He didn't need his sight to be able to see the looks of wonder, of confusion, of hatred and malice, and the weight of pitying eyes as they passed. He could feel them. Each felt like a kunai of judgment hitting into him. He wondered at what point he would die. He was sure Naruto could see them too, although he acted oblivious to them. Now he stood stoically right inside Naruto's door and the blond rambled on annoyingly about who knows what. It was an understatement to say that he didn't want to be here. Tsunade had played her cards well and he was forced to choose between Kakashi and Naruto, or add an extra year of community service. Naruto, somehow, won out.

Naruto was moving about the apartment; he was in the kitchen now, mentioning something about having nine different flavors of instant ramen to choose from. Figures. Sasuke sniffed curiously; the entire house smelled of old ramen and…dust bunnies. He grimaced.

It must have been five minutes before the blond realized his teammate wasn't listening to him. "There's only one bedroom, so me and Kakashi put your bed in my room…" Naruto quieted, noticed Sasuke shift impatiently.

Finally silence. "Where's my bed?" Sasuke ordered. He really wasn't in the mood for all this. Newness and change, unwanted memories. Dependence and weakness.

Naruto stood and watched Sasuke for a moment. He looked almost the same as the old Sasuke he once knew. Older, more mature now, more defined muscles, longer hair. Distant. Then there were the stark white bandages that contrasted with his lightly tanned skin. They wrapped around his head, covering his eyes. Still, he could see Sasuke's insecurity play out through his expressions and body language, something he had only seen on rare occasions before. It unnerved him; he wasn't quite sure how to react to a Sasuke that showed his feelings and emotions.

Sasuke frowned, wondering what the idiot was doing. He reached out his hands slightly and moved his foot forward a small amount. "Naruto…" He tried to sound threatening, but his voice came out uncertain.

Naruto stepped forward quickly, and grabbed on to Sasuke's elbow, "Come on."

Sasuke stepped forward and cautiously walked with Naruto, his free hand trailing against the wall. His knees eventually ran into his bed. He pulled out of Naruto's hold and felt along its surface. It was already made with one pillow on the left side. He sat down on it, a guarded expression as his face when he turned his head in Naruto's direction.

"So…" the blond drawled, "I'll just, um, be in the living room."

Sasuke nodded shortly and listened to Naruto cross the floor and shut the bedroom door on his way out. He waited a moment, trying to listen to Naruto move about in the main room, and then slowly laid down on his side. The pillow was just as he remembered it, a hard and unforgiving thing. The sheets were clean smelling, like lavender. He wondered if Sakura had washed them. He thought it strange that his teammates would keep all his stuff for him since he hadn't planned on returning to the village. "Morons," he mumbled to himself, turning onto his back and placing his laced hands over his chest. He wondered what time it was, he was already tired – not sleepy – just worn out. It couldn't have been later than two. He had been given a check-up at one and declared well enough to leave with Naruto. "Stupid Naruto and his fucking big mouth." His whisper sounded loud to his own ears. He didn't think it was loud enough for his blond ex-teammate to hear, even if he did, it didn't really matter.

* * *

Naruto silently opened the door to his bedroom and peered in. It had been four hours since Sasuke had lain down. He was beginning to worry that something had happened. He hadn't heard a sound since leaving his sightless teammate. There was Sasuke's bed, laying along the opposite wall. Sasuke lay on his side, one hand tucked under his pillow and the other laying in front of his face. The blankets below him were in a bit of disarray as if he had been tossing and turning in his sleep due to some action-packed dream.

"Sasuke?" Naruto whispered, not knowing if he was awake or asleep. No movement. "Maybe he didn't hear me..." He mused to himself. A moment of debate found him quietly walking across the room to the raven's bedside. "Sasuke?" he asked in a low voice, "Are you awake?"

Sasuke's eyebrows pushed together and he mumbled something incoherently.

Naruto hummed quietly to himself and retreated from the bedroom. He had to go meet Sakura and Kakashi for their Friday night team dinner. He had planned on bringing Sasuke along, or at least tell him that he was leaving, but it seemed he needed the sleep.

* * *

Sasuke awoke with a start from a terrifying, colored world, to an equally frighteningly dark one. He sat up quickly in bed and winced when his head started spinning. He took account of his surroundings; there were insects playing a chorus of songs outside, but he didn't hear anyone in the room nor the adjacent living room. He couldn't detect the slight warmth from the sun shining through the window above his bed anymore either. He swung his legs over the bed and stood up slowly, "Naruto?" he advanced slowly with his arms searching to the opposite side of the room where he knew the door was. When he found it, it was open. "Naruto?" He called again in the doorway. He sighed heavily and leaned against the frame and rubbed at his face. The dream…the nightmare he'd been having every night since he'd returned was gruesome and painful. It was so real. "Gah!"He shouted tired of the grossly sanitary bandages, of constant annoyance of pain in his eyes, and of the darkness!

He walked back into the bedroom against the right wall that led him to the bathroom. He flipped the light switch and stared blankly at the mirror. His finger tips reached out to graze the mirror if front of him, making sure it was there. His hand clenched and his breathing grew labored and angry. He yelled as loud and long as he could and punched the mirror, then ripped away his bandages in an uncoordinated tantrum.

Blood dripped from his knuckles and he clenched the sink so hard his knuckles turned white, leaning over it for support and letting his head hang down. He had thrown his bandages somewhere off to the left and had kicked the mirror's ass until his anger had subsided and he was breathing heavily.

* * *

Naruto walked through the door, kicking it closed as he flipped the lights on with his elbow while holding the ramen he'd brought home for Sasuke and a few bags of groceries. "Sasuke..." he froze mid-step upon seeing his friend seated at the dining table, fingers knitted and elbows firmly rooted on the surface as he looked straight ahead. His knuckles were cut up, shallow but fresh. His clothes were a little bloodied. But, most noticeably, Sasuke had taken off his bandages. His eyes were open, but they were not their normal onyx color as they had always been. The edges had began graying, creeping towards the center. They were hollow, distant. They bore through Naruto, as if looking at something far behind him.

"What?" Sasuke snapped.

The blond shook out of his shock. "Nothing," he mumbled and walked next to him and setting the bag of ramen on the table in front of the Uchiha. He continued to the adjacent kitchen, starting to put away the few groceries he'd bought, while Sasuke's hand explored the contents of the back, pulling out a steaming cup of noodles. He fished for the chop sticks and sloppily began eating.

"We missed you tonight; it was our team dinner. You were asleep when I left. Next time you should come, Sasuke."

He ignored the blond and concentrated instead on finding noodles and aiming them into his mouth.

"What time did you wake up?" Naruto asked curiously, walking back over to the table.

"I don't know, an hour or two ago."

Naruto hummed in responses and retreated into his bedroom. A few minutes later…"Sasuke! What the hell happened in here?"

Sasuke gulped down another mouthful of food, wiping his mouth with the back side of his hand he called, "Oh yea, Naruto, your mirror broke."


	5. Behind 6 Feet Walls

**Author's Note: **What a fast chapter! Are you ready for some intense moods from your favorite character, Sasuke? yea, i doubt it

**Disclaimer:** All characters – and some dialogue – mentioned in this story are the rightful property of their owners, namely Masashi Kishimoto and affiliated groups. Copyrights, civil rights, trademarks, company names, Christian names, James names and rights of ownership are respected. Most major credit cards accepted as well. Any liabilities of economic, moral, physic, psychic, para-psychic, paternal, maternal or every other nature is NOT my responsibility, so don't say you weren't warned.

**Warning!: **yea and maybe something in the future... language i guess?

**Afraid of the Dark  
**_Behind 6 Feet Walls_

Sasuke woke up screaming and wrestling the covers that had twisted around him in his sleep. He fought away the hands that were attempting to hold him and pushed himself against the cold, unforgiving wall.

"Sasuke, please, it's just me," a familiar voice said sadly. The voice's hand reached out and grabbed his hand. Sasuke couldn't help but flinch and pull away, but the hand held on softly and the fingers traced a circle as if of their own accord.

"Sasuke," the voice, Naruto, called, "I'm leaving for a mission soon."

Sasuke snatched his hand away, feeling belittled by the gentle touch and reorientated himself by feeling around the bed.

Naruto was silent a moment until his footsteps padded several feet away. When they stopped, fabric and metal rustled. "I'm sorry to leave, you know, since you just got here...Granny says it's important, though."

"Hn," Sasuke squinted his eyes, "I can manage on my own, idiot." He slid out of bed and stood motionless next to it. He was still quite unsteady on his feet and unused to moving about in total darkness. He would not negate his comment by wondering around the room with his hands out like a fool.

Naruto shouldered his pack, "I'll be back day after next."

Sasuke wondered what he would do for two days. Life seemed utterly boring. There didn't seem much he was capable of doing anymore. He wanted to train, though his head still hurt a bit when he exhorted himself. Some warm ups and stretches should help get him in shape. It would be nice if his blond teammate could take him to the training grounds before he left. "Naruto?" Sasuke called, pulling himself out of his thoughts and opening his senses to his surroundings. The house was quiet. The wind blew harshly against the side of the house. He berated himself for getting lost so completely in his thought and shuffled towards where he remembered the bathroom was and stepped into the shower, stubbing his toe in the process.

His shower was slow and clumsy. Several times he knocked over a bottle of soap and spent several minutes searching for it on the floor, which caused the soap in his hair to run into his eyes and burn them. After washing, he let the hot water run down his skin, slightly burning him and reveling in the sensation. It made him feel real so that he wasn't just a nothing caught in-between space but a real human being still. He toweled off, shaking out his hair and wrapped the linen around his waist. He headed towards the kitchen carefully to make breakfast. Just as he set a pot of water on the stove to boil, a knock sounded at the door.

"God damnit..." Sasuke mumbled, remembering he was wearing only a wet towel. Grumbling, he shuffled to the door and cracked it open. "Hello?" there was only silence. Sasuke frowned, "Hello, is anybody there?" he called again, opening the door a bit more in hopes of hearing something.

"My, my, Sasuke, what a way to greet guests," Kakashi spoke teasingly, pushing the door softly to come in.

Sasuke's face contorted in several emotions in that instant, shifting from anger to embarrassment to discomfort. He stepped back grudgingly to let his teacher in, but tripped on a shoe, sending his arms flailing and his shaky legs off balance. Several things happened then which Sasuke took in all at once. His towel, which had hung precariously around his hips, loosened and fell with a wet thud to the floor; a shrill squeak came from the open doorway, a squeal he could identify anywhere as belonging to Sakura; and a strong hand swiftly caught his arm and held him steady before he could fall unceremoniously in a naked heap to the ground.

Sasuke's cheeks burned. He was sure they were tinted the brightest red. He reached down and grabbed the towel at his feet with one hand and held in front of his privates, using Kakashi's hand to help him stay balanced. The raven quickly pulled the cloth around himself and held it on with a tight fist at his side.

"Why would you answer the door naked?" Sakura stuttered.

"Shut up, Sakura, why the fuck were you looking?" he ground out with anger and embarrassment.

"Why don't you go get dressed, okay?" Kakashi suggested, strangely serious and in tune to the younger man's feelings.

Sasuke turned and made his way to his room as quickly as he could, slamming the door.

"It's quite a morning already," Kakashi mused, eye smiling as he ushered his pink haired student in from her spot frozen in the hallway.

Sakura blushed furiously, "How embarrassing..."

"He'll survive," the silver haired teacher commented, walking to the stove and turning off the burner. "The last thing he'll want is pity, Sakura."

The kunoichi nodded silently and looked around the room. The kitchen and living room were clean and tidy, a change from what she normally saw at Naruto's.

After a few moments, a sulking Sasuke emerged from his room, wearing a black pair of pants, wrap shoes and the jacket Naruto and Kakashi had gotten him. "What do you guys want?" Sasuke demanded, stopping a distance away from either of them.

"We thought we'd take you to lunch, you know, to get out of the house while Naruto's gone." Kakashi lazily replied as he lounged against the counter.

"No thanks," Sasuke grumbled. He crossed his arms and sulked in place. He was in no mood to go parading around town with his team after his recent humiliation.

"Oh, common," Kakashi rolled his eyes and silently walked up to Sasuke, locking arms with him and pulling him towards the door, "Forget it, you dont have a choice. We're not leaving you here by yourself all day, Sasuke."

Their trek to Ichiraku Ramen was slow and wavering on Sasuke's part. Kakashi did well at leading him, arm locked into his, guiding gently forward, and to the side occasionally, to avoid people on the busy street. Still, Sasuke found it near impossible to trust someone so completely to lead him forward and often pulled back to slow down or reached his hands out to make sure he wouldn't fall into any of the people he heard all around him.

"Welcome to Ichiraku, Kakashi and Sakura - oh, welcome back, Sasuke." the owner of the stall greeted boisterously, hesitating in his speech as he took notice of the raven haired man situating himself on a seat in-between the two. "What'll it be for you three?"

"I'll have house special," Sakura smiled kindly.

The old man nodded, scribbling the order down, and turned to the Uchiha.

Sasuke, oblivious, sat silent with his fingers laced on the table. His expression was blank and slightly shrouded by his long, dark bangs. Sakura nudged him on the arm with her elbow. He turned toward her questioningly.

"Hmmm," Kakashi mused as he browsed through the menu, "Sasuke what do you want? I think I'll have the tankatsu shoyu ramen with nori and egg." The jounin eye smiled and set the menu back in its holder.

"That's an odd choice, not feeling like the usual today,Hatake?" The old man laughed.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "I'll have the same."

"Comin' right up! By the way, where's Naruto today?" the man called as he dished the noodles and broth into bowls.

"A mission," Sakura replied, "he should be back in a couple days."

"Ah," the owner skillfully carried the three steaming bowls and set them in front of the team. "I always miss his company around here."

"And business, I'm sure." Sakura laughed

The man laughed along, wiping his hands on his dirty apron. "Yes, indeed!"

"Thank you for the food," Kakashi chanted, taking two sets of chopsticks, setting one with a _click _in front of Sasuke and breaking his own.

Sakura nodded, "Thank you for the food."

Sasuke grabbed his chopsticks and fished for noodles in his bowl. "you didn't have to order for me," he said bluntly.

"Just this once," Kakashi replied, slurping a mouthful of noodles behind the cover of his novel. "I know you don't like miso like me."

"Hn,"

"So, Sasuke, how are you? Any problems with your eyes?" Sakura questioned.

"Yea, actually, they don't work! But you know, other than being unable to see, I'm just dandy." he snapped, sarcasm dripping off his words.

"Sasuke," Kakashi reprimanded sternly.

Sasuke ignored his sensei, continuing to eat with angrily knit eyebrows.

"God, Sasuke, you're such a dick!" Sakura retorted. She had only been concerned for the well being of her friend and teammate. Though his attitude was slightly justified after the traumatic loss, his words still stung her. She had missed Sasuke's friendship when he had been gone, but he was much different now that he had returned with unseeing eyes.

"If you're looking for someone who cares, search somewhere else," he replied coolly. He ate his ramen slowly, concentrating not to make a fool of himself in public.

Kakashi glanced up from his meal and book to his angry, raven-haired young pupil and then to his pink-haired one whose eyes has become shiny and watery. She caught him staring and quickly turned towards her bowl to avoid further scrutiny.

The three ate the rest of their meal in silence. The clinging of dishes and the other customers chatting filled up the dead space.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura stood the moment she was finished eating, "I've got matters to attend to. I'll see you later." She left in a hurry, walking into the crowd and out of sight.

Kakashi sighed and _tsked, "_You made her leave, Sasuke."

"She left of her own accord."

"Her eyes were all watery," Kakashi added. He hoped that, on some level, it would make Sasuke feel guilty and at least be nicer to his teammates.

"Hn," Sasuke replied as his sensei moved both of their bowls out of the way.

The jounin rummaged through his pockets, pulling out a handful of bills and coins, setting them on the table. Kakashi picked up a coin and, pulling one of Sasuke's hands out of his pocket, placed it in the younger man's open palm.

"One ryo," Kakashi supplied.

Sasuke weighed the coin in his hand, running his fingers over the beveled edge and center design.

Kakashi took the coin back, replacing it with another, which Sasuke examined carefully, until he had examined the assortment of coins.

"I'm sure you realize that it'll be important to tell the difference."

Sasuke nodded, placing the last coin on the table as Kakashi collected them and stored them again in his pocket, leaving only the bills which he counted out, placing a few on the counter for the meal and hanging on to a few more as he put the rest away.

"I suppose you'll have to figure your own way of marking and keeping track of bills. Here," he place the money in three stacks in front of Sasuke. "From the right, 10, 50, and 100 ryo. It's yours, in case you want to buy anything for yourself."

"Thank you," Sasuke mumbled, feeling the small stacks. He decided to fold the corners in different ways for the different kinds of bills. It would do the job, he hoped.

"Shall we go?" Kakashi asked, standing from his chair.

Sasuke also stood, "Sensei, I want to train today. I'm out of shape and training blind will heighten my senses to make everyday life easier."

"Training? I'm not sure you're ready for that yet, Sasuke." Kakashi replied as he cracked open his book and began reading.

"I'll be fine!" Sasuke snapped back, "I'm aware of my limitations!"

The silver-haired ninja stared at his student, examining Sasuke's blank yet determined eyes and the passion within them. "Fine, fine, let's go." Kakashi reluctantly agreed, ducking under the entrance banner and taking a step outside.

"Wai-" Sasuke stammered, hearing his sensei step away. He pushed away the nagging panic that tried to rise up inside of him at being left alone in the dark in the middle of the city. He reached out, pushing past the banner and brushed his fingertips against the familiar, coarse uniform of his jounin sensei, locking onto it once it was found. They started through the town, which had become even busier. Sasuke was reluctant to completely follow Kakashi, and slowed to feel in front of him and drag his feet along the ground.

Kakashi sighed, "Relax and walk normally, Sasuke."

"I can't _see. _How the hell am I supposed to know if I'll run into something?" Sasuke spat.

"I have more than enough sight to see for the both of us."

"Hn, right. You say this even though you only use one eye and are always reading those stupid books, even now."

"You're free to walk by yourself, Sasuke. I honestly don't care." Kakashi replied evenly, pulling out of Sasuke's grip seamlessly and walking a few paces ahead.

Sasuke stopped. In his black world, his only shining light of orientation went out, leaving him lost in the noises of people walking around him. In the busy street he could not hear his sensei or tell which way he was to go. He grumbled under his breath, cautiously stepping forward a few steps. Someone ran into him, brushing his shoulder. He stumbled momentarily and the offender yelled at him to watch where he was going. Agitated, he went onwards, anger strengthening his courage and resolve, towards where he thought Kakashi had gone, but tripped over a foot over after only a few steps. He toppled ungracefully to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Kakashi asked from above him.

Sasuke sent a staggering glare in the direction of Kakashi's voice.

"Give me your hand."

Sasuke reluctantly obeyed and was pulled easily up to his feet.

"Just trust me. I'm your sensei, I wouldn't lead you astray." Kakashi eye smiled even if his student couldn't see.

"Hn," Sasuke snorted unbelievingly.

* * *

The two went through a variety of stretches and basic exercises that made Sasuke feel the weakness in his body. It had been some time since he was able to train and he felt the strain in his tight muscles. Sasuke held his forehead in his hand deter his growing headache after he had finished his push ups, sit ups and lunges. His head had begun to hurt in-between his eyes with the slight excursion.

"Everything okay?" Kakashi asked.

"Yea, what next?" He pushed away the slight pain and waited for direction.

"We've trained blindfolded before, this is no different. You'll have to get a feel for sensing when object are coming towards you by using your other senses, in and out of battle. I'll begin slowly. Are you ready?"

Sasuke nodded, slipping into his familiar fighting stance.

"Begin," Kakashi spoke, moving slowly, gracefully through the katas.

Sasuke found the fight difficult to keep up with, between anticipating where the next move was, figuring out Kakashi's timing, and adjusting for his sensei's height and reach. It was difficult to concentrate on his senses and defend himself, more so even than training blindfolded.

After half an hour, Kakashi stopped his attacks noticing Sasuke faltering and growing slow. Sasuke was frustrated with himself and his condition, which showed through his deeply furrowed brow, and had many light bruises from attacks he was unable to block.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Sasuke," Kakashi spoke up, clapping a hand on Sasuke's shoulder, "practicing like this _will_ help you get better at using your senses, but it'll take time. However, I think it would be too dangerous for you to fight any real opponent, so don't go looking for trouble, understand?" Kakashi thought his words may hurt his troubled student, but he wanted to make sure Sasuke didn't harbor any false hope that could possibly get him killed.

Sasuke rolled Kakashi's hand off his shoulder. He scowled deeper than ever. "Fighting is all I've ever known..." he mumbled under his breath.

"It's too dangerous, you can't anticipate-" Kakashi started.

"It's all I've ever known!" Sasuke screamed in a fit of anger, his fists grabbed the front of Kakashi's vest of their own accord, clenching the fabric and pulling the older man forward.

Kakashi regarded his student cooly through his half lidded eye even after the raven released him and instead held his fists at his sides. " I think it's time to go home."

* * *

Kakashi had left Sasuke alone after returning him to his apartment. Sasuke's mood had not improved at all since leaving the field and he sat alone in the darkness. His sensei's words stung him deeply, nearly ripping out the very core of what Sasuke thought himself to be. He was a ninja, as was his brother and father, and many fathers before him. He didn't know if he could bare the shame of being unable to do the one thing he felt he was bred to do: fight. Besides that, his pride could not let him be told that he was unable to do something. He had spent his whole life training and overcoming obstacles to become stronger. To him this was just one more obstacle. He rubbed the hollow between his eyes to urge this headache to go away. He decided to sleep it off and started towards his bedroom.

An idea struck him then. The force of it stopped him in mid step. He wasn't completely helpless, any other man might be, but he had one special asset, the Sharingan. He wondered if he could still use his kekki genki. It could have been damaged too, but he couldn't be sure unless he tried. He closed his eyes. Tsunade had expressly told him not to use Sharingan, but he had to know if his eyes still worked and it couldn't wait.

"Sharingan..." he muttered under his breath, sending the familiar flow of chakra to his eyes. His shrouded vision remained the same but he was assaulted by a wave of fire coming from his eyes. He retreated, letting the chakra fall away and pressing the palms of his hands into his eyes. "what the fuck!" he yelled in frustration. "just fucking work, god damnit!" he yelled, letting go of his eyes and forcing triple the amount of chakra to his eyes as he normally would.

"Gah!" he yelled, falling to his knees as an overwhelming pain overtook him, burning his eyes, pulsating through his head and sending his limbs numb. However, as he fell to the floor into bleak unconsciousness, a smirk came across his pale, thin lips. In the brief moment before he had collapsed from pain, he had seen, however faint, an orb of light hanging in the mid afternoon sky. For him, that was hope enough to help him overcome the pain.

* * *

Sakura tapped on the door to Sasuke and Naruto's apartment with short, quick rasps of her knuckles. She fidgeted, tucking her bubblegum pink hair behind her ears and brushing the wrinkles out of her skirt. She shifted from foot to foot, growing impatient. 'That bastard better not still be sleeping at one in the afternoon,' she growled inwardly, knocking louder this time. After several minutes, she tried the door. It was unlocked and she cautiously pushed it in, peering into the well lit kitchen and living room. Everything seemed to be in place except for a lump of black clothing in the middle of the room. "Sasuke!" she yelled, eyes growing wide as she realized that her teammate was passed out on the floor. She ran to him and kneeled over him. Carefully rolling him over onto his back and leaning over him, she examined his face and the rest of his body for injuries. Her hair, grown out slightly from her younger days, fell from behind her ear and brushed against Sasuke's exposed neck and shoulder. "Sauske?" she called again, gentler but just as urgent. He frowned slightly but other wise stayed asleep. She called his name again and shook him.

Sasuke frowned and opened his heavy eyelids. His hands automatically went up to touch Sakura's face; her cheek, her closed eyelids, down her nose and lips.

"Sakura..." he identified. His voice was rough from the long sleep.

"Are you okay Sasuke?" she asked. "What happened to you? Why were you passed out on the floor?"

Sasuke ignored her and let his hand trace down her strands of hair to where they touched him. "You grew out your hair."

"Wh-" she stammered, cut off in her sentence. She had forgotten that Sasuke hadn't seen it. "Yea, I guess I did."

"I liked it better shorter, it suited you." He commented, pushing himself up with a grunt and holding his throbbing head in his hands.

She smirked at the hidden, if long overdue compliment.

"What are you doing here?" His head hurt from the fall, his eyes still held remnants of pain, he was hungry, and he had to pee. He clumsily rose to his feet and started towards the bedroom.

Sakura scrambled to her feel and followed Sasuke, "I came to to do a check up on your eyes, you know, make sure they're healing right and that nothing has changed."

"I can assure you," he replied as he stepped into the bathroom, "nothing has changed. I'm still blind as ever."

She stared at him, feeling somewhat pity for him but at the same time she didn't really care that he was blind, however terrible that may sound. His blindness had brought him back to Konoha and for that she was grateful.

"Do you mind?" He voiced, annoyed and standing next to the toilet.

"Oh, oh yea, sorry," she mumbled. She watched him a moment, unbeknownst to him, as he turned and unbuttoned his pants. She shook her head and silently walked back into the living room. 'What the hell Sakura! You cant invade his privacy like that!' she yelled in her head as she plopped down on the couch and waited. After several minutes, Sasuke emerged from his room and into the open living room. He shuffled across the empty middle of the room, slowing and reaching out cautiously as he neared the kitchen counter. When his hands found the unforgiving edge (which he had run into several times already) he followed its edge, tracing it with his fingers until he crossed over the stove.

Sakura watched him intensely, observing the way he moved and felt his way around the apartment. It entranced her. He was still clumsy in his movements but they nonetheless fascinated her. The way he shifted his weight from one leg to the other, how his head often hung low causing his unkept fringe to eternally shade his eyes. The way his fingers moved from shelf to shelf examining the objects that lay in his path.

Having taken care of his full bladder and taken something for his headache, he worked on making a bowl of ramen for himself. He wasn't quite sure where Sakura had gone, but he was sure that she hadn't left. He grabbed a small pot from a top shelf and heated some water to a boil, leaning his hip against the counter as he waited and thought about what he had done the night before. He couldn't believe he had seen, even if it was only very vague, lights and shadows. He wondered if it was possible to use his Sharingan without so much pain. If so, he would be able to fight well enough.

"Um, I think your water has boiled enough," Sakura spoke up from the living room.

Sasuke snapped away from his thoughts. He carefully poured the water into the foam cup of instant ramen. Carefully, he held the foam cup of water and followed the counter out of the kitchen and towards the living room where he had heard Sakura's voice from the couch. He carefully sat down, making sure not to tip his hot food as he placed it on the coffee table.

"Well?" he asked impatiently.

"Oh," Sakura stuttered, here hands glowed faintly with chakra and she brought them up to Sasuke's face, touching his temples softly.

Sasuke could feel the string of chakra move around his eyes, examining them thoroughly.

"Has there been any change, better or worse, in your sight?" she questioned

Sasuke stared blankly at her, an annoyed expression on his features.

"Okay then, has there been any pain?"

"No, " he lied, even as his eyes and head still pained him from attempting to use his Sharingan. "except when i was training," he added as an afterthought.

"They seem to be doing nicely, although they're a bit more strained that they were," she hummed to herself. She pulled away from him, folding her hands in her lap "Just take it easy with training for a while more. Are you adjusting okay? I mean, you seem to be getting around the house well enough at least."

Sasuke reached for his cup, bumping into it and nearly knocking it over, "Fine, it's still frustrating," he replied, dipping his chopsticks into the bowl and fishing out noodles.

"I'm sure," Sakura agreed, looking about the room to find anything of interest. "Kakshi-sensei told me about what happened at your training session yesterday."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted, still chewing noodles.

"I disagree with him...I think that if you worked hard enough you could go back to being a ninja. It's never been done before, but it is possible," she offered, hiding her rosy cheeks from his face even though she knew he wouldn't see them anyways.

Sasuke paused, lowering his chopsticks full of noodles back into the bowl. His head tilted slightly. Whether it was due to surprise or curiosity Sakura could not tell.

Sasuke remained silent, his head lowering in thought. When he did not speak, Sakura decided to change the subject. "I was wondering, if you're up to it, that I would take you to start your community service today."

"That's fine," Sasuke replied, "at least it's something to do."

Sakura stood and smiled, "Good! I thought I'd come along too, at least accompany you in case you wanted help. If you want, I'm pretty sure there are some brail books in the library if you want to learn to read. It would be something nice for you to do."

"alright," the raven replied, slurping down the last of his meal. He stood and started towards the door. Sakura followed happily. They paused at the door, strapping on their sandals and Sakura let Sasuke out of the building and towards the hokage's office.

* * *

"This is stupid," Sasuke complained.

"Oh we'll, deal with it," Sakura replied, plopping a tray of flowers into his arms. She picked one up too and started to the flower bed that lined the outside wall of the academy. "Follow me," she told Sasuke, walking past him.

Sasuke frowned and turned around, "I don't see the point, I can't even see the god damn flowers." He stepped forward slowly, unsure exactly where Sakura had gone. It was hard to hear her footsteps among the other city sounds.

"Well," she drawled.

Sasuke was able to follow easier focusing on her voice.

"They're not for you, idiot. They're for the COMMUNITY, for people who CAN see."

"Hah," Sasuke fake laughed, stopping next to his teammate "you have jokes."

She smirked and knelt down. "Okay, so I guess we should plant these maybe two hands apart or something?"

Sasuke knelt as well, removing one plant from the tray and then from its plastic pot. He had seen his mother plant their garden plenty of times when he was young, so he had a good idea what to do. He grabbed one of the hand shovels and dug out a small hole after feeling the dirt area to find a suitable location, then loosened the plants roots gently before setting it down in the hole and softly patting dirt down around it.

"I'm surprised you know what to do," Sakura teased.

Sasuke's cheeks flushed, "It's because of my mom. I used to watch her plant the garden behind our house every spring. She always loved keeping a beautiful garden," he replied, picking up a small handful of dirt and tossing it at Sakura.

She squealed in protest, "Sasuke!"

His lips quirked in amusement, knowing he had hit his target.

Sakura picked up a handful of dirt and threw it back.

Sasuke jumped slightly, having not expected the attack. "'The hell," he said, brushing the dirt off of his head and clothes.

Sakura laughed.

Sasuke's face turned mischievous and he felt around the ground, looking for the hose. He found it, just as it was being pulled in the opposite direction.

"Looking for this?" Sakura taunted.

Sasuke's smiled disappeared instantly and he glared threateningly at his teammate. "Don't you dare do it."

"Do what?" she asked innocently, spraying Sasuke with a short burst of water.

Sasuke received a face full of water. "You're done," he spoke solemnly with a grin on his face.

Sakura squealed, laughing as Sakura jumped up towards her. She danced away, holding the hose and spraying Sasuke every time he would almost grab her.

Sasuke followed Sakura's laughter and the shots of water aimed at him, smiling all the while. He didn't remember the last time he had just had a bit of fun. "Ah!" he exclaimed, his feet getting caught in the hose's length on the ground. He stumbled, trying to gain his footing but ended up falling forward into Sakura.

Sakura caught him, barely, his weight falling into hers. She laughed, steadying him until he found his feet again.

Sasuke smiled too, slightly embarrassed that he had tripped into her.

"Sorry, you're all wet now," she apologized, getting a bit wet herself when he had fallen into her.

Sasuke shrugged it off. His smile eventually faded and his normal expression took over.

Sakura shifted uncomfortably, she said quickly "We should get back to work." Walking past him, she knelt beside the flower bed once again.


End file.
